JONESBORO — In its regular meeting Tuesday, June 20, the Clayton County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a new travel policy for employees.
In a presentation to the BOC at its pre-agenda meeting on June 6, Interim Chief Financial Officer Stacey Merritt updated the Board on changes to the travel policy.
She said that when an audit was done by the Mauldin and Jenkins CPA firm, they said Clayton County’s travel policy was too vague in some areas and too detailed in other areas.
Merritt added that the new policy is modeled after the state’s travel policy and is designed to follow IRS regulations.
Some highlights of the new travel policy:
♦ Travelers should submit all expenses within 14 days of completion of the trip.
♦ The traveler or designee must submit the expense claim through the county’s Munis computer system and attach all receipts.
♦ Transactions must be consistent within the department and project/grant budget
♦ Department heads are responsible for assessing the need and relativity of the trip.
♦ Expense report must be approved before reimbursement is issued.
♦ Should expenses not meet guidelines, the request will be denied.
♦ Finance Department will review the final expense report to verify all documents are attached and claim is filed out properly.
♦ Finance will book directly with hotel used the County credit card once traveler has submitted the hotel accommodation form.
♦ If a flight is canceled and e-credit is returned to the traveler’s account as a credit, they must reimburse the county the cost of the flight or the price difference.
♦ The specific business purpose of the trip should be clearly displayed on the expense submissions.
In July of last year, an audit was completed and revealed more than $37,000 was paid for tuition and transcript fees to Vanderbilt University by…
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