September 8, 2014 | By Zach Rausnitz
fiercehomelandsecurity.com

Underused vehicles cost the Homeland Security Department tens of millions of dollars in fiscal 2012, according to the DHS office of inspector general.

DHS considers vehicles underused when they're driven fewer than 12,000 over the course of a year. Department agencies or components are supposed to be able to justify keeping these vehicles, or get rid of them.

For a recently released report (pdf), auditors examined the fleets of three DHS components -- Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the National Protection and Programs Directorate -- that comprise about three-fourths of the total DHS fleet. Those three components had more than 40,000 vehicles combined in their fleets in 2012.

Based on a sample of those vehicles, the IG found that more than half were driven fewer than 12,000 miles in 2012, meaning they were underused.

Still, in the following year, 86 percent of the underused vehicles remained in the fleet. CBP, ICE and NPPD's record-keeping systems contained no justification for keeping any of those vehicles, the report said. The components were also unable to explain their decisions to the IG.

The cost of keeping those underused vehicles in the fleet was between $35.3 million and $48.6 million in 2012 alone, the IG estimated. What's more, the report said that range is conservative because CBP and ICE couldn't provide data on mileage or operating costs for about one-sixth of the vehicles in the sample.

Underuse of vehicles wasn't the report's only criticism of DHS fleet management. By 2012, all newly acquired vehicles were supposed to be hybrids or electric, or use fuels that are alternatives to gasoline, in order to comply with presidential guidance from 2011.

Of the 753 vehicles in the IG's sample, 42 had been acquired in 2012. Yet only two were alternative fuel vehicles—and none were hybrids or electric.

The report traces these issues to the fact that DHS fleet management is largely decentralized and run at the component level.

The DHS fleet manager, an official with a one-person staff, is responsible for compiling data from components about their fleets, issuing guidance to fleet managers at the components, and working with other federal agencies, among other things.

Additionally, the DHS fleet manager doesn't have the authority to approve components' vehicle acquisitions and can't enforce the rules about getting rid of underused vehicles at the component level, the report said.

For more:
- download the report, OIG-14-126 (pdf)

http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.co...dhs/2014-09-08