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Financial Management for Elected Officials January 2013 <br /> <br />Institute for Local Government www.ca-ilg.org 6 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />• Credit and Purchase Card Use Policies. The practice of issuing credit cards to agency <br />officials and staff is increasingly rare because of the potential for misuse, either <br />accidentally or intentionally. It can however, be useful to have one or more agency credit <br />cards to make travel arrangements and the like. Some agencies also use purchase cards. <br />A policy specifies controls to prevent misuse of such cards.10 <br /> <br />• Petty Cash Policies. Such a policy provides guidelines and accountability mechanisms <br />for day-to-day cash handling by the agency and its departments. <br /> <br />Cash Management and Investments. State law requires agencies to adopt an investment policy <br />specifying how the agency may invest funds not needed for the agency’s immediate and short- <br />term needs.11 Such a policy allows the governing body to establish and keep current the <br />agency’s investment philosophy and risk tolerance. Although well-defined policies are more <br />than a list of allowed investments,12 such policies should be reviewed by agency counsel to make <br />sure that the agency’s investments and practices conform with state law.13 <br /> <br />Purchasing/Procurement. These policies determine the processes the agency uses in <br />determining with whom it does business (including under what circumstances contracts are <br />competitively bid) and which staff have decision-making responsibility in that area. Such <br />policies also typically specify how the opportunity to do business with the agency is to be <br />announced, with the goal being to reach <br /> <br />Page 56 of 109