Last year, CAL-Card's 13,464 cardholders made some 450,000 purchases. The program was designed for relatively small acquisitions where the high transaction costs of traditional government buying often outstrip the actual price of the products purchased. Any state agency participating in California's Delegated Purchase Authority program may sign up for CAL-Card. Agencies tailor the card to their needs and decide which employees get the plastic, where they can shop and how much they can spend. Local governments and school districts may also take advantage of the program.
Supervisors monitor spending through monthly statements.
Instead, you show faith in people, and wonderful things happen. A healthy savings each time the card is used is one of the biggest rewards. I've seen numbers much higher than that from other states and the federal government. Still, even the cautious estimate yields a big number, given California's volume of transactions. Just as important, state workers who use a purchase card acquire goods and services much more quickly, according to a study that examined the initial CAL-Card pilot.