Don't follow the rules? Lose credit card!

But this doesn't apply to MCPS! The "don't follow the rules - lose the credit card" decree comes from the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in Miranda Spivack's 8/11/09 article in The Washington Post.

Here are the sentences uttered by the executive director of the M-NCPPC that will never be attributed to the MCPS Superintendent or Board of Education. In MCPS credit card misuse is accepted.

"I don't want to leave the impression that something was stolen," he said. "No one believes that. But there are rules and regulations for how you use the cards, and if you consistently don't follow them, you lose your right to the credit card."

Rodriguez said that during the probe, which began in April, officials took back the credit card of Henry Mobayeni, a high-ranking technology official who works for Stanley. Stanley also surrendered his card. Mobayeni's card was used to make some of the purchases that are under scrutiny...

...Stanley said the technology spending under scrutiny is limited to an $800 emergency purchase of a computer system security firewall. Rodriguez said Monday that the problem is bigger than that and includes other technology purchases, none of which appear to have been made using proper contracts...

In all of our IT spending, we review everything very carefully to ensure that all of our purchases are properly executed."

And don't worry about IT spending at MCPS being scrutinized. IT equipment can be purchased in MCPS without contracts and without the signature of the Board of Education President. There is nothing to review in MCPS because rules aren't followed!