Government employees' perceptions of government purchase card violations: An exploratory case study

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore U.S. federal government employee's perceptions pertaining to government purchase card misuse and fraud. This case study attempted to provoke an awareness of the impact of government purchase card fraud on American taxpayer dollars and U.S. federal government agencies budget as well as to explore the preventive control of government purchase card misuse. The central research question was: How do U.S. federal government employees perceive the fraudulent misuse of government purchase cards? The participants were 20 U.S. federal government employees from a respective U.S. federal government agency located in the state of Hawaii. Seven open-ended questions were used in the face-to-face interviews to collect participants' responses. NVivo 10 was used to code, process, and analyze the collected interview data. Eight major themes emerged from the study: performing audits to deter government purchase card fraud; providing training and education to government purchase card holders; enacting checks and balances system for purchase accountability; government purchase card misuse wastes taxpayers' dollars; government purchase card fraud violates public trust; government purchase card fraud increases taxes; misusing government purchase cards is an unethical act; government purchase card holders' lack of understanding of regulations. Recommendations to government leaders and government purchase card holders as well as for further research studies were included.