State auditor: Employees won't be reimbursed for using credit card points

Change comes as State Auditor's Office rewrites its voucher policy manual

Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash

PIERRE - The South Dakota State Auditor’s Office is continuing its crackdown on reimbursement requests by state agencies and employees.

Auditor Rich Sattgast’s office told the state’s Board of Finance Tuesday that moving forward, state employees would not be allowed to get reimbursed for state expenses when they use reward points to pay for those expenses. Though that policy had been in place before, its publicity and enforcement had been sporadic.

State employees most often use personal credit cards to pay for services that benefit the state and then seek reimbursement. So, for example, a state employee who used a personal credit card to book a hotel on state business but paid for that with reward points would not be eligible for reimbursement under the policy.

In other words, getting cashed out for their reward points at the expense of taxpayers.

“(This means that) you did not personally pay for the goods or services with your own money for the current expense – instead you used a pre-earned reward, voucher, etc. to cover the cost,” the policy clarifies.

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