Fayetteville State Plans Emburse One-Card Program After Audit Findings

A North Carolina state audit found inconsistent administration of Fayetteville State University’s procurement-card (P-Card) and travel-card (T-Card) programs, including untimely or missing transaction reviews, inadequate documentation, and purchases that did not meet stated requirements. The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor warned that weak management could allow “inappropriate, unauthorized, or prohibited purchases” to go undetected, raising risks of fraud, waste, abuse, and misuse of university resources. The findings follow a 2024 audit that identified nearly $700,000 in unauthorized employee charges, underscoring that card controls and oversight have been a continuing concern.

For the audit period from July 1, 2025, to February 28, 2026, auditors reviewed 662 P-Card transactions totaling $576,000, drawn from 6,002 transactions totaling $2 million processed during the period. The audit reported 107 transactions worth $85,954 with untimely reviews and 68 transactions worth $14,727 that had not been reviewed. Separately, 63 transactions totaling $22,952 lacked a stated business purpose, 33 totaling $7,799 lacked supporting receipts, 23 totaling $3,212 received automatic approval, and five totaling $3,659 were for nontravel-related purposes. These exceptions point to opportunities to strengthen review workflows, approval configurations, documentation standards, and employee training—not simply to replace the payment-card platform.

The scale of the programs is material for implementation planning. Fayetteville State University had 109 P-Cards associated with 2,562 transactions totaling $896,444 during the audit period, while 188 T-Cards were associated with 3,440 transactions totaling $1,117,348. P-Card spending was concentrated in restaurants and fast food ($100,898), grocery stores ($48,751), and computer software stores ($45,776); Lowe’s ($35,226) and Walmart ($28,648) were the leading named merchants. T-Card spending was concentrated in hotels ($421,683), restaurants and fast food ($158,055), and airlines ($143,655), with Delta Air ($77,119) and Marriott ($56,998) the leading named merchants. These volumes and categories suggest that any consolidated program will need to support different purchasing and travel workflows, with controls tailored to each use case.

Chancellor Darrell Allison said the university agrees with the findings and plans to eliminate the separate Travel Card and Procurement Card programs in favor of a single One-Card program using Emburse. He described planned steps as “enhanced monitoring, compliance reviews, training, documentation requirements, periodic workflow validations, and implementation of the One-Card program and Emburse platform.” The audit also recommended oversight, monitoring, and training, along with reviews and updates to system configurations and workflow settings and stronger enforcement of requirements. For GovCon firms, this is a potential indicator of future demand for card-management implementation, platform support, control configuration, compliance reviews, training, or audit assistance. However, the available reporting identifies no solicitation, award, contract value, or procurement schedule; vendors should treat the change as a stated institutional plan, not an active bid opportunity.

• The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor identified weaknesses in transaction reviews, approvals, business-purpose documentation, receipts, and purchasing compliance at Fayetteville State University.
• Auditors reviewed 662 P-Card transactions worth $576,000 from a broader audit-period population of 6,002 transactions totaling $2 million.
• Audit exceptions included 107 untimely reviews ($85,954) and 68 transactions not reviewed ($14,727).
• Documentation findings included 63 transactions without a business purpose ($22,952) and 33 without supporting receipts ($7,799).
• The review also identified 23 automatic approvals totaling $3,212 and five nontravel-related transactions totaling $3,659.
• During the audit period, the university’s 109 P-Cards were linked to 2,562 transactions totaling $896,444; its 188 T-Cards were linked to 3,440 transactions totaling $1,117,348.
• The university plans to replace separate P-Card and T-Card programs with one Emburse One-Card program; the report does not specify a rollout date or procurement mechanism.
• The auditor’s recommendations and the chancellor’s response emphasize monitoring, compliance reviews, employee training, documentation requirements, workflow validation, and updated system configurations.
• Suppliers may assess whether their higher-education offerings support card controls, review automation, documentation capture, training, or audit readiness, while monitoring for a formal procurement notice.
• No solicitation, contract award, stated contract value, or procurement timeline is identified, so the announcement does not establish an open competition.