ATLANTA — The Atlanta city auditor’s office said the Department of Public Works needs to take more action to ensure misuse of fuel doesn’t happen.
“We undertook this audit as a follow-up to our 2012 audit that identified patterns of use consistent with fuel theft and an overall control environment inadequate to prevent or detect the misuse of fuel,” the office said in a statement. “This audit assesses whether the Office of Fleet Services has strengthened controls to mitigate the likelihood or detect the theft of city fuel.”
According to the audit, while the city has made improvements to its system controls, the February audit still found weaknesses.
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Additionally, the audit said they had found that not every employee with access to city gas pumps were authorized to use them, leading to possible fuel theft.
“Nearly 22,000 fuel tickets lacked employee names or identification numbers,” auditors said in a recent report. “Processes are not in place to prevent employees from sharing identification numbers.”
The auditor’s office said it had found “instances of employees fueling different vehicles or equipment using the same identification numbers at the same time, or minutes apart, at different fueling locations.”
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After the audit’s findings, the Atlanta City Auditor’s Office made the following recommendations.
To improve recordkeeping and reduce risks of errors and fuel theft, the Public Works commissioner should ensure Fleet Services staff:
- Review employee statuses and assignment changes to remove employees who no longer need access and ensure employee identification information with access to fuel is complete and accurate.
- Ensure processes are in place to track fuel transactions through FuelFocus at all city sites that dispense gas are on file before granting access.
To monitor citywide fuel consumption to identify trends and detect fuel misuse, the Public Works commissioner should:
- Ensure processes are in place to track fuel transactions through FuelFocus at all city sites that dispense gas.
To ensure fuel sites are physically secured and gas pumps and employees are protected from potential hazards, the Public Works commissioner should:
- Ensure cameras under the purview of Public Works are installed and working at each fuel site to capture fueling activity.
- Provide guidance to departments with fuel tanks to ensure CCTV systems are in place, warning and instructional signage are consistent across all sites, safety measures are implemented, and periodic inspections occur to ensure tanks are free from debris and overgrowth.
In the audit report, the document shows city officials agreeing with the recommendations and noting some were already in progress.
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