A recent audit found that more than $880,000 in purchases made by Roanoke city employees over a recent six-month period lack approved expense reports, a delay that city officials blame on staffing shortages and problems with new financial software.
The 946 charges, totaling $884,283, were made using city purchasing cards between December 2024 and June 2025. The program provides city credit cards for employees to use to pay for certain types of work-related expenses.
The expense reports aren’t missing, according to municipal auditor Drew Harmon; they were filed but still have not been signed off on by the employees’ immediate supervisors or the finance department. Nor did the audit identify any misappropriation or theft, he said.
But the lack of signoffs “created conditions in which card purchases could go unreviewed, increasing the risk of erroneous or improper purchases going unnoted, incorrect expense coding, and understated expenses in departmental accounts,” the audit reads.
It flags as potentially problematic several specific categories of expenditures, including $27,000 in gift cards and more than $4,000 in DoorDash, Uber Eats and related delivery services.
This was the first time in seven years that the purchasing card program had been audited, and the full city audit, which was presented last week to the city council’s audit committee, was four months late. The city’s audits have been late for the last several years, Harmon said.
The delays don’t come with any financial penalties, but “it’s a bad look,” he said.
“It’s a sign of a potential problem to bond holders,” he said. “And most of us localities need to be able to borrow money.”
Technology, staffing issues causing problems
Last year, the city implemented a new software system from Oracle to handle budgeting, accounting, accounts payable, purchasing and receivables, Harmon said.
He believes the new system was brought online too quickly, without sufficient training for employees. Issues with the software have affected the accuracy and completeness of fiscal year 2025 data, according to last week’s presentation to the audit committee. The accounting team “continues to identify missing transactions and misclassifications,” it said.
Councilwoman Evelyn Powers, who serves on the audit committee, had been the city’s treasurer for almost 20 years when the Oracle system was implemented. She said last week that she is “disappointed” to see that the auditing department is still having issues with the new system.
But Powers said she “has faith” that Harmon and the rest of the department will get the city’s finances back on track, both in the full city audit and in the purchasing card program.
Nick Hagen, a city councilman who also sits on the audit committee, declined to comment on the audits. Councilman and committee chair Peter Volosin did not respond to an email requesting comment, nor did Councilwoman Vivian Sanchez-Jones, who also sits on the committee.
“Honestly, I did not feel that we were ready to truly go live in July of 2024,” said Powers, who retired as treasurer in September 2024. “We need to make sure we’re continually checking that these things are getting taken care of.” She said Oracle is a good system, but that it takes significant time to learn.
Harmon said that the department is short at least two accounting positions. “It’s a moving target, and it’s been that way for a while,” he said. The staffing changes extend to the top of the finance department, as Margaret Lindsey, the former director of finance, left her position last week.
He said staff turnover has been amplified in the last three to five years, but couldn’t pinpoint a reason why.
The city has pulled in extra staff from other city departments to help the finance department get back on track, Harmon said.
Audit calls for updated policies
One of the big challenges, Harmon said, will be dealing quickly — but thoroughly — with the more than 900 expense reports awaiting approval: “Did you really scrutinize it? Are you really sure it was a necessary or appropriate expenditure?”
As of May 19, the city had more than 830 active purchasing cards, the audit states. Harmon said any city employee can receive a card with their supervisor’s approval and a demonstrated need for a card.
The audit used data from the city’s card provider, U.S. Bank, and looked at transactions posted from 2021 through mid-2025. The transactions that lacked approvals, totaling more than $880,000 in spending, were made in the last six months of that period.
The audit found that goods and services paid for by city cards were “for the most part, received and related to City initiatives and objectives.”
But the report also flagged about $19,000 in purchases that auditors said could represent “wasteful spending,” including flowers, “a unique haircut for an apprentice” and more than $1,500 in Amazon Prime subscriptions. Documentation was missing in many cases, the audit found; in some cases, it was unclear that the purchases met the public fund spending standards laid out in the city’s procurement policies.
The audit also identified over $4,000 in spending on DoorDash and Uber Eats, and related services, which were noted to have high upcharges from menu prices.
The audit noted the need for limitations on the use of gift cards and for department-specific processes for handling expense reports.
One of the key issues, Harmon said, is the use of the purchasing cards to buy gift cards. The audit identified $27,000 potentially spent on gift cards from local brick-and-mortar establishments, with $7,926 spent at one local retailer. Gift cards were used for purposes including employee recognitions, employee referrals, door prizes and social services client support.
“We just think that’s not a good idea, because they’re very subject to being misappropriated, they’re like cash,” Harmon said.
Policies determining appropriate use of the purchase cards haven’t been updated since 2015, Harmon said, and since then, the city has begun to use a new bank and a new system.
The audit states a targeted date for newly drafted policies to address online food orders, gift cards and other issues by Feb. 1.
Harmon said another issue that has surfaced is transfers that haven’t been approved for money that was reappropriated into different accounts, leading to the spending of money that’s not actually in that account. He said the backlog of those transfers is currently being addressed.
“My office has been concerned for a while,” Harmon said, of the issues the auditing department is currently working to rectify. “I mean, we’re just late, and things haven’t been done that need to be done, so I don’t think it’s good at all.”
But Harmon said he feels good about the direction that the department is moving in and hopes to be back on track by the beginning of the next fiscal year in July.