Purpose

The objective of our examination was to determine whether DEC’s use of fuel cards complied with the Office of General Services’ (OGS) Fuel Card Services Contract Guidelines (Guidelines), the State Vehicle Use Policy (State Use Policy), and DEC’s Policies and Procedures (DEC Policies).

Background

DEC has approximately 2,800 active WEX cards and established 10 unique personal identification numbers (PINs) for the regional and central offices. Last year, DEC made 75,000 WEX card purchases totaling $3 million.

Key Findings

DEC’s use of WEX cards does not comply with the Guidelines, the State Use Policy, or DEC Policies, and DEC does not have sufficient controls in place to ensure all fuel purchases are appropriate. DEC officials have not implemented the recommendation from our Office’s report 2006-BSE-11-006 issued on May 16, 2008 to assign unique PINs to individual employees, consistent with the Guidelines. Instead, officials allow employees to share one PIN that DEC assigned in each of its regions throughout the State. Additionally, DEC employees do not always maintain complete, accurate fuel logs to support fuel purchases, as required by the State Use Policy and DEC Policies.

Key Recommendations

• Issue unique PINs to all employees who purchase fuel.
• Ensure DEC employees complete fuel logs accurately and timely.
• Ensure DEC supervisors review, approve, and monitor fuel logs on a regular basis and follow up as appropriate.
• Have your Internal Audit Office audit Department-wide use of the WEX card.