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Louisiana state employees charged $863 million to Purchase and Travel Card programs over a five-year period that included $147 million in 2020, a year marked by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

The Louisiana legislative auditor published a review of the expense card programs, saying an audit was necessary “because the obligations resulting from these transactions are direct liabilities of the state.”

The programs are monitored by the Office of State Travel (OST), which is part of the Division of Administration. They allow state workers to use taxpayer-funded credit cards to make purchases on behalf of their government employers, which includes state agencies, boards, commissions and universities.

Auditors found the number of transactions made by state employees and the total dollar amount of the transactions increased from 2016-19 and only fell in 2020 because of COVID-19.

“Card usage increased from calendar years 2016 through 2019, with the number of card transactions increasing 17.4% – from 474,862 to 557,560 – and the amount of these transactions increasing 19.6% – from $161.3 million to $192.9 million,” the report said.

Dozens of state entities were included in the analysis, but Louisiana State University stood out as the single-largest source of spending and use.

Auditors determined more than one-third of the total spent during the five-year period came from LSU and its various institutions, which accounted for $300.8 million, or 34.8% of the $863 million total.

It also was reported LSU is not subject to independent oversight from the Office of State Travel; rather, LSU monitors its own credit card expenses – an arrangement that does not exist for any other state entity.

“In November 2015, DOA (Division of Administration) and LSU entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to allow LSU to administer its card programs for all LSU institutions, including all audit and compliance functions,” the report said. “The MOU does not require that LSU send the results of its monitoring activities to OST.”

The report further identified several loopholes in OST’s monitoring activities. For example, the office conducted 285 compliance checks during the five-year audit period to ensure program integrity, but the process was limited.

“OST only reviews a random selection of 20 transactions from most of the data analytics reports, instead of focusing its reviews on those transactions that appear to be most risky,” auditors said.

Monitoring activities also were cited for failing to ensure proper spending codes were adequately used, thereby undermining certainty in what many purchases were for. In other instances, cards were used after government cardholders were “separated from employment," auditors said.

The report included that expense card rebates totaled $19.2 million during the audit period, which was enough to fully funded OST's budget.

State Travel Director Garret DeBate concurred in a response letter with all nine recommendations in the Legislative auditor’s report.

“OST is working to improve analytics and reporting functions to enhance monitoring of the Purchase and Travel Card Programs” DeBate said. “We appreciate the feedback provided by LLA to help OST improve these programs in the future.”

Wednesday's print edition gives an incorrect site for Thursday's Vermilion Catholic-Central Catholic game. The game will be in Morgan City.

May 25, 1951 — September 30, 2021
Leonard E. Wiggins Jr. passed away on September 30, 2021 at Kingwood Medical Center in Kingwood, Texas.
Leonard was born on May 25, 1951, in Brownsville, Texas.
He was preceded in death by his maternal and paternal grandparents. He was also preceded in death by his mother, Silvia Orason Buck and two brothers, Frank M. Buck Jr. and Darryl Ivan Buck.
Leonard is survived by his father, Frank M. Buck Sr. of Bayou Vista; two sisters, Elizabeth Buck Waguespack of Houma and Ethel Buck Cantu of Abbeville; two brothers, Berry M. Wiggins of Gretna and Lonnie J. Wiggins of Baton Rouge; and former wife, Bonnie Wiggins. He is also survived by nine nieces and nephews; five great nieces and nephews; and numerous cousins.
There will be a celebration of life service on Friday, November 5, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the Clarion Inn of Morgan City, 520 Roderick St., Morgan City, Louisiana, 70380. Family and friends are invited to attend. Leonard will then be laid to his final resting place in a private service to be held on November 9, 2021 in North Louisiana.
In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association by any of the following ways; direct mail to Alzheimer’s Association, 225 North Michigan Avenue, floor 17, Chicago, IL, 60621, directly online at act.alz.org; or they can be mailed to his sister Elizabeth Waguespack at 248 Madio Drive, Houma, Louisiana, 70364, and one large donation will be mailed directly in memory of Leonard E. Wiggins.

The LSU AgCenter hosted a sugar cane field day at Dugas Farm, Inc. on Oct. 20 in Assumption Parish. The field day was supported by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.
The Taylor Foundation awarded a grant to the LSU AgCenter to fund a four-year research project on reducing nutrient runoff from crop fields. Forty-two event attendees were provided with unique learning opportunities and hands-on demonstrations that highlighted the benefits of the best management practices being researched on this project.
Many presentations emphasized the factors that contribute to the sustainability practices of an industry and the responsibility of agriculturalists to make a positive change. Among several presentations and guest speakers, field tours were given of the practices that are currently being tested on small plots.
Keith Dugas houses the sugar cane model farm operation in Napoleonville and enjoys his role in this project.
“I get to see firsthand what works and what doesn’t, and I also get to work with a lot of good researchers’ students,” he said. “It is a lot of hard work to collect all of the data, and I appreciate what they are doing and that I get to stand beside them.”
A variety of topics and management practices were featured at the event.
“The biggest success I see is the variable rate nitrogen and using the GreenSeeker technology,” Dugas said. “I have been using this technology for two years on my farm and I see great benefits in using it.”
Due to market fluctuations and availability of resources, the prices of nitrogen are predicted to be high for the upcoming year.
“Not every year is going to be a good year,” Dguas said. “I would advise any farmer to try implementing best management practices in their operations because the benefits that I have seen on my farm outweigh the risks. And where sustainability is concerned, the more we can do to preserve our land, the better off we will be.”
Lisa Fultz, a soil microbiologist with the LSU AgCenter, along with other researchers on this project share a common goal of ensuring a productive and sustainable future of Louisiana agriculture.
“One of the things that we are trying to do is to take a good measurement of inputs and outputs from the cropping systems and try to reduce the differences,” she said. “We are ultimately trying to make sure that inputs are staying in the field and not overapplied and are not lost, which is financially beneficial.”
This project has seen many successes, and Fultz is excited about the future of this research.
“Working with producers and implementing best management practices on large-scale operations is something to look forward to in the next few years,” she said. “The best management practices that we have researched so far provide incredible benefits to the producer and we would love to see producers across the state reap those benefits.”