Two employees at the South Australian Department for Infrastructure and Transport have been accused of misusing their government spending cards, including entering a "fake receipt" to keep the online expense management system "happy".
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has been investigating allegations two staff together spent almost $400,000 in three years on their government purchase cards.
Commissioner Ann Vanstone KC found most of the transactions appeared legitimate, but about 10 per cent of the 1,000 items purchased could not be accounted for.
She said a number of purchases also appeared unnecessary for the staff members' roles.
The commissioner said, in one example, one of the staff recorded a $2,000 computer hardware purchase and entered a note which read: "Fake receipt to keep Pro Master happy 😊".
ProMaster is an online expense management system used by the department.
"While this activity certainly pointed to inappropriate conduct, the evidence gathered could not prove corruption," Commissioner Vanstone wrote.
"This was due to a lack of adequate record-keeping in this section of the department."
Commissioner Vanstone highlighted another $2,000 purchase that was entered into the expense system without any description or receipt.
She said despite a pattern of insufficient information being submitted to explain the purchases, they were not questioned.
"It is disappointing that the suspicious transactions were approved in the first place, and not identified during routine internal audits," she wrote.
As one of her five recommendations, the commissioner has asked the department to reassess the need for issuing employees with purchase cards, noting staff should only have one when there is a genuine need.
She also said it appeared the department may have not learnt the lessons from an ICAC investigation two years ago that resulted in an employee being convicted of failing to act honestly in relation to purchase card transactions.
