Pittsburgh Controller Rachael Heisler said Thursday her auditors found no widespread abuse by parks officials who use city credit cards, or p-cards, to pay vendors.
The release of the 21-page audit, which recommended reforms to p-card policies, capped a 17-month inquiry that was sparked by a city administrator’s move to authorize more than $20,000 in credit card payments to a contractor who had been fired from another city position.
The audit found parks officials did not abide by city guidelines when they used p-cards to pay three different vendors more than $10,000 each — the p-card’s annual per-vendor limit — in 2023 and 2024.
But, Heisler said, the misuse was not systemic.
“The improper p-card payments we uncovered last year raised alarming questions about the potential for widespread misuse of p-cards in the parks department,” Heisler said in a prepared statement. “We’ve identified several important steps the administration can take to clarify the rules around p-card purchases and help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Heisler’s findings, which focused solely on p-card usage by parks officials between Jan. 1, 2023, and May 3, 2024, jelled with an internal probe city officials conducted last year.
Jake Pawlak, the city’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters in August 2024 that misuse of the city-issued credit cards revealed “honest mistakes” by employees.
The three-month internal investigation found some improper use of the p-cards in the Department of Parks and Recreation but no widespread problems or illicit activity. The probe resulted in little discipline and few policy changes.
Pawlak said the violations uncovered last year did not warrant firing parks department Director Kathryn Vargas, who authorized the payments to the previously fired contractor.
Auditors working with Heisler did find that most p-card expenses they examined “did not align with OMB’s typical transactions for which p-cards can be used,” according to the audit’s executive summary.
The city has about 70 p-cards in use, Pawlak said.
Last May , Heisler and several elected leaders voiced concerns about how the parks department was paying a contractor on city credit cards. The payments totaled about $23,000 over about a year.
City rules forbid using the credit cards to pay professional contractors.
Initially, Heisler and other city leaders felt that paying Mario Ashkar, a contractor who helped coordinate farmers markets, on city credit cards violated the policy.
The city’s internal probe, however, determined Ashkar was conducting “nonprofessional service” and could be paid on p-cards for such work.
In a response included in Heisler’s audit, parks officials called p-cards “critical to our operations.”
CitiParks is working on employee training and also to establish a new written agreement for artists, entertainers and others with whom they work, officials said in the audit. It also plans to work with the budget office “to provide more clarity” around the definition of “professional services.”
Mayor Ed Gainey’s office deferred to the parks department statement when asked Thursday afternoon for comment.