Purchasing card payments

These files contain details of employee purchases made using HCC issued Purchasing Cards. Hertfordshire County Council uses Visa Government Procurement Cards (GPC) provided by Royal Bank of Scotland arranged under a central contract by the Office of Government Commerce.

The key benefits of introducing the Procurement Card Programme are:

• Reducing paperwork and administration time; removing paper based invoice payment processes, it is estimated that each card transaction that replaces a paper based transaction saves the authority £28 based on National Audit Office figures and our own research.

• Replacing the needs for staff to access cash for purchasing at a local level; this replaced a number of inefficient paper systems, imprest accounts and petty cash tins.

• Providing greater management information on expenditure; we have an online banking system that allows us to manage spending and provides for quick and easy overview by auditors, accountants and managers.

• Increased audit controls; each card has a series of spend limits and controls and is issued to a named officer who is responsible for its use and safekeeping.

• Increased protection; we are insured against any fraudulent use to £50k per transaction (unlike any other payment process or system).