San Diego audit finds utility workers misused city-owned SUVs

San Diego public utilities workers used city-owned vehicles for personal purposes last year — and one got paid $6,000 for time spent conducting personal business with a city vehicle instead of working, according to a city auditor’s report.

The office began investigating utilities employees’ use of taxpayer-owned sport utility vehicles after it received two anonymous reports on its fraud hotline, according to the report released last week. Auditors substantiated both tips and found other employees not identified by the callers also had misused vehicles — one of them on days the worker was on vacation or called in sick.

The investigation found six unnamed utilities employees, two of them managers, had used their publicly owned vehicles for personal purposes a combined 1,152 hours between Oct. 1, 2015, and June 30 of this year, the report said. Most of the time was attributed to one employee who took a city SUV home overnight.

The misuse was possible because of weak internal controls to keep track of vehicles and make sure Public Utilities Department employees actually worked while they were on the clock, the report said.

“According to a manager we interviewed as part of our investigation, the employees in question had no formal schedules in place and were not required to produce daily activity reports,” the report said. “We also learned that PUD management, and the city as a whole, does not use GPS data to monitor city vehicle use on a routine basis to assure compliance with city policy.”

The city’s agreement with employees unions restricts GPS tracking.

“City employees appear to be aware that city vehicles are equipped with GPS monitoring equipment, but they also seem to be aware that the city is generally prohibited from using the data to monitor employee activity without prior notice to the employee,” the report said.

Auditors recommended that the department investigate further, try to recover costs and unearned pay, take disciplinary action against employees as necessary, identify and correct any income tax misreporting, and strengthen internal controls. Department managers agreed with the recommendations and said they would comply by June 30.

To prevent similar problems in the future, the auditors recommended that management consider using GPS data to monitor vehicle use, and the department agreed to consider the idea.

morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com

Cook writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune

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