Allegheny County Controller Wagner reported today that her audit of county vehicles, which remains ongoing, and includes the use of county vehicle credit cards, has resulted in criminal action against an employee of First Vehicle Services, the maintenance provider for County vehicles. Auditors in the Controller's office discovered a major discrepancy with a fuel card, and sought further information from Public Works to understand the discrepancy.
Thereafter, County Police were engaged to further investigate, leading to the arrest of an employee of First Vehicle. The non-county employee had been using the fuel card and had stolen $7,633.21 by use of the fuel card. County Solicitor Andy Szefi sent a communication on December 2nd, 2014 to First Vehicle asking for immediate repayment of $7633.21 to the County, for misuse that had occurred to date
Wagner indicated that her auditors believe the use may have been more expansive and are continuing their analysis to determine the scope of the alleged fraud.
Controller Wagner began an audit of all Allegheny County fleet vehicles on August 28th of this year. The audit has already netted Allegheny County taxpayers $42,737.52 from the misuse of a county owned vehicle.
"County owned vehicles and gas cards are ripe for abuse without proper oversight. We expect that our audit will result in both future policy changes and significant cost savings for taxpayers,” said Wagner.
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