Probate Court judge responsible for $11k procurement card reimbursement

CHARLESTON CO., S.C. (WCBD) – The Probate Court judge for Charleston County is responsible for an over $11,000 reimbursement after an internal audit found the office was misusing procurement cards, or p-cards.

Last Thursday, the Charleston County Audit Committee decided to implement a procurement card restriction for the Probate Court. A reimbursement was also recommended.

On Tuesday, county council approved these recommendations and revealed Judge Irvin Condon will have to pay $11,341 out of pocket. The Probate Court is now restricted to one p-card with a $5,000 spending limit.

P-cards are used by employees to pay for approved expenses.

The investigation into the Probate Court reviewed all p-card transactions from October 2021 through early March of this year. The audit found 136 transactions, totaling just over $15,000, were p-card violations. A total of $651 dollars was reimbursed and $276 was reversed by the credit card company, according to the document listed in the committee meeting agenda.

Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt said the county’s p-card guidelines follow state law.

“My hope following this discussion tonight is that we don’t have these issues in this office anymore and the public understands how hard we are working to ensure all of those guidelines are followed and that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely,” Honeycutt said.

Judge Condon told News 2 he accepts full responsibility for the issue. The judge said moving forward, his office which consists of 25 employees will now have one p-card as opposed to seven. He said his new financial officer will hold the card and will take part in p-card training on Wednesday.

“The buck stops with me. I accept responsibility and we made changes, and we’ll move forward to serve our citizens in Charleston County,” Judge Condon said. “…And so, the citizens of Charleston County can know that we will continue to work hard with our innovative programs like Drug Court, Mental Health Court, Veterans Court, our adult visitors program, everything we do.”

The judge said he wasn’t sure when he had to pay the money by.