The legislative audit that revealed abuses of the state’s vehicle fleet and my commentary about it prompted a variety of emails.
Here are some examples:
“Longspur” wrote, “I work for the West Virginia Division of Forestry and I can guarantee that our fleet is not abused!”
“Mountaineer Bob” emailed, “I would hope that someone, anyone with any authority in this government would be so embarrassed and outraged by this report that they would work to resolve this.”
“CaptainQ” wrote, “The bottom line is, whether one works for the government or the private sector, employees will generally take advantage of ANY vehicle/mileage/reimbursement rules.”
The story has apparently touched a nerve, or at least reignited a long-standing complaint about the use of state vehicles.
The audit revealed the state doesn’t really know how many vehicles it has (probably around 7,000), that some vehicles are used more for personal travel than state business, that many who use the vehicles are not properly reporting their mileage to the IRS, and that taxpayers are shelling out $60 million to $70 million a year for the gas, insurance and maintenance of the fleet.
Consider this point raised by the audit: “Gasoline purchases exceeded over approximately 24 million dollars during calendar year 2008. It is possible that some of this amount is due to unauthorized use of the vehicles issued to State employees such as excessive personal use.”
House Finance Committee Chairman Harry Keith White is among those upset by the report.
“We absolutely got to get a handle on it,” White told me Friday on Metronews Talkline. “If we’re going to allow certain individuals to have cars then we need to properly account for it.”
Gov. Manchin has taken note as well. His office issued a statement promising to follow up on the audit’s findings.
“We will examine the necessity of vehicles which may not have a high percentage of work use,” Manchin’s office said. “We will be looking closely at the audit findings to see where we can be more responsible and efficient with the fleet we control.”
The audit has been particularly embarrassing for state Treasurer John Perdue and Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglas who, according to the audit, failed to properly report the portion of their state vehicle usage that is subject to taxes.
But the larger issue here is the overall cost to the taxpayers and the public policy question of how much West Virginia should spend on vehicles.
As Charleston Gazette capitol reporter Phil Kabler asked in his Sunday column, “Can a state that’s looking at a budget deficit next year afford to spend $60 million to $70 million a year to operate a fleet of nearly 7,000 vehicles, or roughly one vehicle for every five full-time employees?”
This is ultimately the question the Governor and Legislators must answer.
