City of Hartford Vehicle Inventory, Assignment and Use Audit
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2.
Because the COH Vehicle Use Policy was not authorized and implemented, most of the requirements, both related and unrelated to vehicles with commuter privileges, including some key requirements, were not being followed. This included, but was not limited to the following: a.
Including employee commuter use of City vehicles as a taxable event. b.
Verifying
that employees have valid drivers’ licenses.
c.
Requiring employees to confirm in writing that they have read, understand and agree to follow the Policy accordingly. A number of these issues are addressed in more detail throughout this report. 3.
As recent as March 2013, the City reportedly had a total of 73 vehicles with commuter privileges. At the start of our review in July, the
Mayor’s Office provided us with
a detailed list of City vehicles assigned to employees with commuting privileges which included 51 vehicles assigned to
the Mayor’s Office (2), Chief Operating Officer (1), Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation (1),
Department of Public Works (5); Department of Health and Human Services (2), Department of Development Services (2); Fire Department (3), Police Department (34) and the Department of Emergency Services and Telecommunications (1). Various tests of this listing including independent confirmations and reconciliations of the number of these vehicles with the respective department management and reviews of related operations disclosed the following: a.
In an independent review and confirmation of the vehicles on this list with Fire Department management, we noted that it did not include 14 vehicles designated by the Fire Department as being commuter vehicles. Fire Department management informed us that ten of the 17 vehicles designated for commuter purposes are only used on a part-time basis when the assigned employees are on-call. It should also be noted that one of the vehicles was not currently assigned to an employee because the related position was not filled. b.
A subsequent list of commuter vehicles compiled by Department of Public Works (DPW) ESD management in July 2013 and provided to us in September 2013 included 61 vehicles. This included eight additional commuter vehicles in the Fire Department and one each in the Department of Development Services and Police Department. We believe the eight additional vehicles noted in the Fire Department were included in the 14 additional vehicles we independently verified above. c.
The original list we received from the Mayor’s Office of the 51 City vehicles assigned to employees with commuter privileges
did not include Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), asset numbers or any other key data that would allow us to reconcile the vehicles on the various lists on a one to one basis. In addition, as will be noted in another section of this report, many of the VINs and other identifying vehicle information recorded in the various spreadsheets and databases was inconsistent or incomplete/inaccurate. d.
According to a letter dated September 23, 2013 from Mayor Segarra to Council President Wooden, he indicated that he reduced the number of City vehicles assigned to employees with commuter privileges further to 45. This reduced the number of City vehicles
assigned to employees with commuting privileges in the Mayor’s Office (1); Department of Public Works (
2); Department of Health and Human Services (1); Police Department (2); Department of Emergency Services and Telecommunications (1); and, increased the number in the Fire Department (1) from the original list of 51 vehicles we received. It should be noted that of the current list of 45 vehicles assigned with commuter privileges, 32 or about 71% are Police Department vehicles most of which are reportedly mandated according to the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreement.