Audit Finds Lax Credit Card Oversight At Department Of Assessments And Taxation

By Maryland Matters Staff, Maryland Matters

October 13, 2025

State auditors have referred their investigation of credit card use by a worker at the State Department of Assessments and Taxation to the criminal division of the attorney general’s office, after finding questionable purchases by the employee and lax oversight by department managers.

The Office of Legislative Audits report released last week said its investigation was sparked by a tip to its fraud, waste and abuse hotline concerning questionable corporate purchasing card (CPC) purchases involving an individual employed at DAT’s headquarters during the period from May 2019 through August 2024.

It found that not only had the employee made questionable purchases, including questionable CPC payments made on behalf of two senior management employees at SDAT, but that there were problems with the agency’s internal controls “that enabled questionable activity to do undetected.”

The report said that 37 SDAT employees had corporate cards, and they made 7,649 purchases worth $2.3 milion from fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2025. The targeted individual was responsible for 530 payments during that time, totaling $118,000.

The employee submitted 230 payments, worth $41,400, without receipts and another 16, worth $1,400, that came with illegible receipts. When documentation was available, the agency, and later the auditors, found some questionable expenses like $376 paid to one vendor for items that included dog food and steaks; and $190 for items that included “tumblers, nail polish and other personal items.”

The audit also found that the employee paid about $6,800 for two rental properties in Ocean City in August 2022, apparently at the direction of two management employees attending a conference there from Aug. 17-20. But the report noted that the rentals were for the entire week of Aug. 13-20 and were made in each case for two adults and two children. It said SDAT could not provide justification for the extra nights, or show whether costs of the vacation property were consitent with standard hotel costs for the resort at that time of year.

SDAT said it identified the questionable expenses by the employee while preparing for a 2024 audit by the comptroller’s office, and after identifying $300 in questionable payments — for personal utilities, gas and phone bills — it fired the employee in August 2024. The agency said it stopped its investigation then, since $300 is the threshold for terminating a worker.

But auditors said SDAT could not provide documentation of that investigation, and that when it fired the employee, it failed to process it as a “termination with prejudice” — meaning that the employee would have been eligible to be rehired by another state agency.

Auditors said a search of state employment records showed that the person has not been hired by another state agency, and SDAT has since reprocessed the firing to reflect that it was done “with prejudice.”

Even though state law requires that agencies “immediately refer any instances of possible criminal or unethical conduct by an employee” to the attorney general’s office and to the governor’s chief legal counsel, SDAT did not do so, the auditors said. Nor did it seek to recover the questionable payments it uncovered.

In his reply, SDAT Director Bob Yeager agreed with all the findings of the audit and said his agency has taken steps to correct the problems identified in it, including referring the matter to the attorney general and reviewing all agency termination notices to make sure they were properly classified.

Yeager also said the agency has developed a training program for corporate card holders and required refreshers for current card holders, improved processes for approving purchases and reviewing purchase logs, and clarified the proper response when issues are found.