Multnomah County auditor launches review of gift cards, citing news report
County staff are supposed to distribute the gift cards or other financial incentives, often used for things like encouraging people to obtain preventive health care or participate in focus groups, within a month of purchase. Workers are required to use logs to track how they are given out, and the logs must be filed to the health finance division within five business days of card distribution.
“Each card must have a clear purpose and be tracked like cash,” county health officials wrote in a training presentation last fall. However, in recent years, some county workers may have failed to consistently follow the tracking requirement, according to public records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
In total, the county spent just over $700,000 on gift cards and prepaid incentives during the 2025 fiscal year, with the Department of County Human Services making up 47% of that spending.