Report: Agencies waste millions on vehicle fleets
Agencies can't ensure fleets are right size due to "a lack of attention to key management practices," GAO concludes.
The federal government is wasting millions of dollars in managing its vehicle fleet, a Government Accountability Office report released Monday concluded.
A second GAO report found that the government database tracking government aircraft is inadequate, resulting in the cost of aircraft operations being understated by hundreds of millions of dollars, the Associated Press reported.
The first GAO report (GAO-04-664) said federal agencies spend $1.7 billion annually to acquire, operate and maintain a vehicle fleet of about 387,000, excluding mail and military combat vehicles.
The agencies examined -- including the Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments -- cannot ensure their fleets are the right size "because of a lack of attention to key fleet management practices," the report said.
GAO said some steps have been taken recently to improve the situation, including new rules requiring agencies to appoint a central fleet manager, establish criteria for vehicle use and periodically review fleet size.
The report on aircraft (GAO-04-645) found GAO could not determine the composition and costs of the aircraft fleet because the database maintained by the General Services Administration was "unreliable ... incomplete and inaccurate."
The two reports were made public by Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.
"Reports of unused cars and hundreds of millions of dollars in unaccounted aircraft costs are simply unacceptable," Collins said.