Audit: Fayetteville State Card Purchases Lacked Oversight, Documentation

RALEIGH – A state audit found Fayetteville State University failed to consistently follow its own requirements for procurement and travel cards, with auditors identifying missing supervisory reviews, inadequate documentation, automatic approvals and prohibited purchases.

The N.C. Office of the State Auditor reviewed Fayetteville State’s procurement card programs for transactions between July 1, 2025, and Feb. 28, 2026.

During that period, the university processed 6,002 procurement and travel card transactions totaling approximately $2 million.

Auditors examined 662 transactions totaling approximately $576,000.

They found 175 transactions, or 26 percent of those reviewed, where required supervisory reviews were either not performed or were late.

Sixty-eight transactions totaling $14,727 had no evidence of supervisory review. Another 107 transactions totaling $85,954 were reviewed between two and 239 days late — after the university had already paid the charges.

Auditors also identified 96 transactions, or 15 percent of those reviewed, where required supporting documentation was missing, incomplete or inaccurate.

That included 33 transactions totaling $7,799 without required receipts and 63 transactions totaling $22,952 without a documented business purpose.

The audit also found the university’s procurement card system automatically approved 23 transactions totaling $3,212 without required supervisory review because of the way the system had been configured.

Prohibited Purchases

Auditors identified five travel card transactions totaling $3,659 that did not comply with university policies.

Those purchases included membership dues for the Fayetteville State golf team at two golf clubs, along with lunches and events held in Fayetteville. Auditors said the expenses did not qualify as allowable travel-related purchases.

The State Auditor’s Office said weaknesses in oversight increase the risk that inappropriate, unauthorized or prohibited purchases could go undetected.

The audit did not allege that all purchases reviewed were fraudulent or that the university lost the amounts identified. Instead, the findings focused on whether transactions and approvals complied with university policies and controls.

Fayetteville State Agrees With Findings

Fayetteville State University agreed with all four findings and the recommendations made by state auditors.

The university said it will strengthen monitoring, provide recurring training and improve documentation and supervisory review requirements.

Fayetteville State is also transitioning this month from separate procurement and travel card programs to a single One-Card purchasing program.

University officials said the new system will include additional monitoring and approval controls intended to prevent transactions from being finalized without required supervisory review.

Because auditors used nonstatistical sampling, the findings from the transactions reviewed cannot be projected to all procurement card transactions processed by the university during the audit period.