SACRAMENTO, CA - Sacramento's new city auditor Jorge Oseguera has narrowed down the top four areas of municipal government he will investigate first, one of which is the city's fleet, reported The Sacramento Press.

The city's fleet of vehicles should be audited with a focus on its management, he wrote in a report to the City Council in January. He pointed out that the city's fleet, overseen by the General Services Department, had a proposed 2011 fiscal year budget of $34 million.

"It's a lot of money that we're spending on fleet," he said.

The auditors will also delve into why the fleet division's budget for this fiscal year was about $7 million less than its budget in 2007/08, according to the report.

Hiring outside the city for some areas of fleet work is another idea they will study. San Jose saved money and enhanced its operations as a result of an audit on its vehicle fleet, Oseguera noted in his report.

The scope of each audit is not limited to one city department, Oseguera said. The General Services Department, which oversees the vehicle fleet, will be scrutinized in the fleet audit, but personnel from many departments use fleet vehicles, he said.

The other audits will investigate the city's health benefits, citywide policies, and revenue collections. The City Council gave Oseguera permission to move ahead with the audits in June and Oseguera said his goal is to complete the four audits, and four others, by June 30, 2011, the end of the fiscal year.

The results of the audit will produce a report that includes recommendations, which Oseguera said will be made public. The City Council is in charge of making any decisions in response to the audit, according to The Sacramento Press.