The mystery of the missing debit cards has been solved.
A year after Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration reported $27,000 worth of city-funded prepaid debit cards for an employee reward program were missing, the Office of Inspector General on Tuesday revealed the cards were in a city safe the entire time.
A report issued by the office said it was a lack of oversight relating to the purchase and retention of the 975 cards by former Mayor Alvin Brown’s administration that led to the confusion.
Brown’s office bought $35,000 worth of cards in $25, $50 and $100 denominations in 2013 and another $25,000 in 2015.
In all, 975 debit cards were bought, but there were no records for the time of the purchase or tracking thereafter while they stayed in a city safe.
Employee Services provided records for when cards were pulled to disperse to employees who earned the rewards under the program started by former Mayor John Delaney.
In fact, the $27,000 Curry’s office claimed was missing also was off — it actually was just more than $3,100 in cards that initially were unaccounted for.
The Office of Inspector General determined Curry’s administration reported the larger number in error.
The $3,100 in cards were found in the safe in May.
It was the lack of internal controls that contributed to the impression of any missing cards, the report said.
Curry’s administration took “immediate” corrective action by canceling all gift cards more than a year ago and being reimbursed for them by the issuing credit union.
It also created a safe inventory log and procedure to account for everything it houses.
Given that no cards were removed from the city’s possession or misappropriated, any concern of theft or misuse is unfounded, the office concluded.
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