U.S. government, start your 642,233 engines

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 1, 2008 | by Jennifer C. Kerr Associated Press

Debra Sonderman, director of the office of acquisition and property management at Interior, says the department has a large number of trucks, nearly 25,000, that are costly to maintain and burn a lot of fuel.

Managers at each of the agency's bureaus review inventories annually, she said. But when pressed about who has oversight of the bureaus to ensure that fleet money is spent wisely, Sonderman hesitated, only to add, "Well, there's a budget for one thing."

Translation: If the money's there, spend it.

"Kind of a rule of thumb is the more cars you control, the more powerful you are, and so that sort of attitude of kingdom building is part of the problem here," Sen. Grassley said in an AP interview.

Only a handful of agencies said they have conducted annual audits to ensure their fleets are the right size. The Department of Homeland Security said it hasn't conducted a department-wide audit since the agency was created five years ago. The agency said it is "working toward that end" but doesn't yet have the resources to analyze its 41,000-vehicle fleet.

At Veterans Affairs, an audit last year by the inspector general's office found potential savings of about $83,000 for underutilized vehicles, but it looked at only three VA medical centers. The VA has more than 150 centers, raising the prospect of additional underused cars and more savings.

In the case of a Cleveland VA medical center, a government- leased vehicle was driven only 16 times in nearly a year; another was driven only twice in the three months after it arrived. One sedan at the center was missing and apparently hadn't been seen in months.

All agencies are supposed to report their annual fleet numbers to the General Services Administration. However, the cost and inventory estimates in the GSA's annual report do not include Congress, which isn't required to report to GSA on its fleet.

Leavitt's driver earns $90,000

The driver for former Utah governor and now current Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt earns about $90,000 a year. That's more than double the average salary of an office manager or accountant, and about $35,000 more than a registered nurse earns, according to a salary calculator provided by CareerBuilder.com.