For Immediate Release:                                                      

June 6, 2019                                                                           

Performance Audit of Department of Administrative Services Fleet Management Released

Columbus – Auditor of State Keith Faber today released the performance audit of the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Fleet Management which recommends potential changes that could yield more than $6 million in savings over the next two years. 

“There are real opportunities here to not only save significant tax dollars, but also improve the long-term operations of the state’s fleet management.” said Auditor Faber. “DAS was a good partner in this audit with the shared mission to find efficiencies that will enable Ohio’s tax dollars to be used more effectively. I look forward to seeing their implementation and impact.”

The audit provided five recommendations with potential first year savings totaling $4,039,116 and a follow-up annual impact of $2,249,471.

“We share Auditor Faber’s goal of providing efficient and cost-effective services to all Ohioans, and appreciate the effort and professionalism of his team,” said Ohio Department of Administrative Services Director Matt Damschroder. “We look forward to utilizing the information in the audit as we continue to optimize our fleet management efforts.”

The audit indicated that two recommendations regarding management of the downtown fleet could save nearly $2 million annually. This included removing fleet management authority from state agencies that are currently self-managed and transferring those responsibilities to DAS. The audit also found that the downtown fleet has 32 more cars than are required to meet current needs.

Additionally recommendations in the audit included;

·         DAS should revise the breakeven methodology to accurately account for all costs of operating a state vehicle when calculating the annual personal mileage reimbursement threshold.

·         Use the newly calculated breakeven mileage as the minimum expected utilization for cars statewide and use this calculation to optimize the fleet size.

The financial impact of optimizing cars in the fleet and personal mileage reimbursements by eliminating cars below the breakeven point and supplying vehicles for drivers who accrued reimbursements over the breakeven could save approximately $3,404,100 in the first year and $1,178,900 annually thereafter.

Finally, by introducing the use of GPS/Telematics on state-owned motor vehicles and using the data gathered to eliminate under-utilized vehicles could save approximately $171,400 during the first year and $40,800 annually thereafter for the state.

The Auditor’s office is statutorily required to conduct four performance audits on state agencies and state universities each biennium.

The full report can be found online.

###

The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio is responsible for auditing more than 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government.

Contact:

Allie Dumski

Press Secretary

(614) -644-1111