The chief financial officer of a Georgia university abruptly retired amid a state probe into the possible misuse of a state credit card.
James Brignati, vice president for business and finance at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, allegedly charged thousands of dollars for plane tickets and cell-phone usage, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Auditors reportedly are looking into more than 600,000 transactions involving p-card transactions at the state’s 35 public colleges and universities after a state audit found blatant misuse in the seven state agencies it spot checked. More than 20,000 employees throughout the state are authorized to use these cards for work-related purchases.
Armstrong president Thomas Jones would not confirm that Brignati left because of the p-card audit The Journal-Constitution wrote.
According to the newspaper’s examination of Brignati’s card transactions since 2005, the former finance executive charged more than $8,500 for airline tickets to the credit card, including $1,372 for a single ticket in 2006. On five occasions, Brignati bought multiple tickets on the same day, on the same airline, for the same price.
Brignati also reportedly spent $9,440 on two different cell-phone providers and charged more than $2,300 on weekends to the card, including $418 at Amazon.com and $689 at Staples.