N.Y. County Lacks Oversight of Take-Home Vehicles

A follow-up audit of the Nassau County, N.Y., take-home vehicles found that the county does not have an accurate inventory of its take-home vehicles, and there is a lack of accountability regarding the assignment of take-home vehicles. It also recommended the county consider centralizing fleet management to improve efficiencies and accountability.

The Nassau County comptroller completed the audit to determine the county had taken corrective actions after a 2015 audit of take-home vehicles found internal control and management issues.

The county has 363 take-home vehicles. Five county departments have the majority of take-home vehicles: Police, Public Works, District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff/Corrections, and the Fire Commission. Three departments are responsible for fleet management: Public Works' Fleet Maintenance Division, Corrections, and Police.

The audit recommended: completing an accurate master list of approved take-home vehicles, ensuring every driver has a valid license and completes operator’s approval request form, ensuring take-home vehicles are returned when an employee leaves the county, obtaining a list of any contractors who are operating county-owned vehicles and determining whether the county has any liability exposure for the vehicles, reconsidering the policy allowing employees who live in other counties to take home vehicles, and implementing a method of tracking traffic and parking violations.

The administration agreed with the majority of findings and has already taken corrective actions based on report findings, including designating the Public Works Fleet Maintenance Unit to be responsible for the oversight of most take-home vehicles.

The full audit can be found here.