Fleet Program Is Not Managed in Accordance with Fleet Management Requirements

The objective of our audit was to determine whether the Department’s fleet program operates in accordance with applicable federal fleet requirements for vehicle operations, acquisitions, and utilization. We found that the Department is not operating its fleet program in accordance with federal fleet requirements. Specifically, we identified issues in the following areas: (1) Operations—The Department’s fleet inventory data is unreliable due to inaccuracies and incompleteness. (2) Acquisitions—The Department’s Personal Property Management Manual lacks commercial lease guidance for the Office of the Secretary, which did not document justifications for vehicle specifications or upgrades. (3) Utilization—The Department does not consistently document vehicle usage, conduct comprehensive utilization reviews, and determine its optimal fleet inventory. We recommend that the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration do the following: (1) Periodically review and ensure all bureau vehicle information is complete and accurate in the Department’s FMIS. (2) Update the PPMM to include guidance for OS commercial leasing. The Department should ensure other PPMM requirements do not similarly exclude OS. (3) Document justifications for mission-essential vehicle specifications when not obtaining leased vehicles through GSA. (4) Update policies and procedures to include requirements for bureaus to maintain adequate documentation of vehicle usage. (5) Provide refresher training to fleet managers to ensure they are aware of all federal and updated Departmental fleet management requirements. (6) Direct Departmental / bureau fleet managers to perform and document an annual analysis of fleet utilization in accordance with Departmental policy and Congressional direction. (7) Perform a VAM study at least every 5 years, to produce a profile of its optimal fleet inventory, and periodically monitor results between VAM studies.