USDA Wasted $6.2 Million of Taxpayer Money for Cars It Doesn’t Use

RSS Feed

USDA Wasted $6.2 Million of Taxpayer Money for Cars It Doesn’t Use

October 10th, 2015

Awake Goy

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spent $6.2 million on cars
the agency does not need, according to a new audit by the Office of
Inspector General (OIG). Due to poor monitoring of vehicle logs the USDA has thousands of cars
that are underused. The audit also identified $1.2 million in
questionable fuel purchases by employees. ~ Elizabeth Harrington

“In this audit, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the
Office of Procurement and Property Management (OPPM) did not adequately
structure the Department’s fleet charge card program or provide USDA
agencies with sufficient guidance to administer it,” the audit said.

The USDA issues fleet cards to purchase fuel for vehicles used for
food safety inspections, agricultural research, fire suppression, and
law enforcement. The OIG determined that 1,133 vehicles were hardly
used.

The audit also identified 5,703 vehicles that were driven less than 5,000 miles over the course of the year.

“Had USDA retained accurate log files and performed the minimum
annual use tests, it could have achieved potential savings of
approximately $6.2 million for vehicles that may not have been
necessary,” the OIG said.

Based on a sample of the vehicles it identified, the OIG estimated
approximately half were unnecessary to the agency. Getting rid of the
3,076 underused vehicles could save the USDA approximately $2,000 per
vehicle, or $6,152,000.

The audit blamed the agency for “not performing vehicle use studies
or maintaining vehicle mileage logs to identify underused vehicles.”
OPPM did not require vehicle logs to be “reviewed and approved by
supervisors.”

“The structure of the program was impaired, in part, because of the
large number of cardholders assigned to certain card monitors, or Local
Fleet Program Coordinators (LFPC), and other supervisors who did not
have the right tools to detect potential improper fleet card use,” the
audit said. In some cases, managers were overseeing as many as 912 fleet
cards.

The OIG also found abuse of fleet cards on excessive gasoline
purchases, finding 11,151 questionable transactions totaling about $1.2
million.

The OIG flagged cards that were used for four or more gasoline
purchases on the same day and transactions that were double the average
daily amount spent on the card.

Lisa M. Wilusz, director of the USDA’s Office of Procurement and
Property Management, agreed with the OIG’s recommendations that better
oversight was needed for the fleet card program.

She said the agency is now using a 6,100-mile per year baseline to identify vehicles the USDA does not need.

Source

October 8, 2015 – KnowTheLies.com