RALEIGH -- County manager David Cooke will ask Wake commissioners to approve a sweeping audit of spending following a scandal involving a former employee who used government credit cards to pay for extensive travel.

In a memo sent Thursday afternoon, Cooke tells the elected officials he met with an independent accounting firm about auditing credit card transactions and travel policies.

Cooke proposes a review of all purchasing by the county's Environmental Services Department going back two years and all other county departments for one year.

The commissioners are set to meet Monday.

Craig P. Wittig, 37, the former recycling program manager for the county's solid waste management division, was fired June 3 after questions were raised about at least 50 out-of-town trips, including four visits to Walt Disney World and a whale watching cruise of the coast of Maine.

In the little more than two years he was employed by the county, Wittig averaged two out-of-town trips a month. He and five subordinates racked up $161,233 in travel costs and other expenses to credit cards issued by Wake County and paid for with public money.

Wittig's boss, Solid Waste Management Director James S. Reynolds, signed off on the charges, which were often justified as reconnaissance of renowned museums and parks for establishing a "world class" environmental education program for the county, including plans for a new nature center at the recently closed North Wake Landfill.

Reynolds was demoted following an internal review. Since details of the trips became public last week, however, Cooke and the commissioners have been peppered with calls from outraged taxpayers wanting to know why he was not fired for approving Wittig's spending.

In his memo Thursday, Cooke does not disclose Reynolds' fate, though he does say that "additional disciplinary actions are being considered."

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