Somerset County Council bank card used for private Amazon purchases

Somerset County Council described it as an "isolated incident [which] relates to a small number of purchases made in error"

A former officer at Somerset County Council has been ordered to pay up after after using an authority bank card for private Amazon purchases.

The issue was discovered during an internal investigation by the council's audit committee.

The case was referred to as a "procurement allegation", but did not stipulate the amount involved.

"All monies were being repaid to the council following the individual's agreement," the authority said.

Local authorities are encouraged to use procurement cards by the government to reduce time and paperwork associated with reimbursing individuals' private cards, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed.

The report read: "This was an allegation that a member of staff (who was leaving anyway) had used their county council procurement card to make online purchases through Amazon.

"In this case, the individual used the council card on a number of occasions - the individual has admitted the error and agreed to repay what is owing."

A spokesman said: "We take the oversight of spending within the council very seriously. Permission to use corporate procurement cards is strictly controlled and any spend is closely monitored.

"This isolated incident relates to a small number of purchases made in error."