The American Samoa Government’s Executive Branch Did Not Have Effective Internal Controls for Government-Owned and -Leased Vehicles

In collaboration with the American Samoa Territorial Audit Office, we audited the American Samoa Government (ASG) executive branch to determine whether it had effective internal controls to detect and prevent unauthorized use of government-owned and -leased vehicles. We determined that the executive branch did not have effective internal controls over its vehicles because the executive branch’s vehicle records were inaccurate and incomplete; the executive branch did not have a comprehensive, governmentwide policy to regulate and monitor the use of government-owned and -leased vehicles; and departments did not adhere to available guidance.We found the Office of Property Management’s vehicle records to be inaccurate and incomplete. Property management’s records for government-owned vehicles contained discrepancies and could not account for 143 out of 519 sampled government vehicles in the inventory records. Further, Property Management did not keep inventory records for government-leased vehicles.In addition, instead of developing comprehensive, governmentwide policy for vehicle control, the Governor’s Office issued GM No. 0003-13 as guidance. The memorandum directed the departments to develop their own individual policies for vehicle use, but did not did not establish timeframes, monitor progress, or impose remedial action for noncompliance.Finally, we found that the majority of departments sampled did not adhere to the general memorandum. These departments did not establish internal control policies to detect and prevent unauthorized use of vehicles, use vehicle-activity logs, follow guidance on the issuance of after-hours use permits, or monitor after-hours use of government vehicles. Only 1 of the 17 departments in our sample developed vehicle-use policies and actively used vehicle-activity logs; 2 departments either had vehicle-use policies or used vehicle-activity logs.Until the Governor’s Office addresses these issues, vehicles are at risk for being misused, misappropriated, lost, or stolen. We made 13 recommendations to address the weaknesses in the ASG’s policies and procedures to help it better account for and control inappropriate and unauthorized use of government-owned and -leased vehicles. Based on the ASG’s response and corrective action plan, we consider the recommendations resolved but not implemented and referred them to the Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Areas to track implementation.