Federal Vehicles A Driving Factor In Government Waste

For most American families, a car is a major purchase, and the decision to buy one is not made lightly. Families often weigh factors such as costs, brand, and how the car will be used. If the family can't find a vehicle that meets its needs and its budget, it might put off the purchase until a later date or re-evaluate the need for the car altogether. No sensible family would consider purchasing a vehicle that it doesn't need and won't be using.

Unfortunately, the same careful evaluation is not true of the federal government, which spends more than a billion dollars each year to maintain a fleet of vehicles, some of which it doesn't need.

This wasteful spending was documented in a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that I requested with Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI). According to the GAO, federal agencies spend approximately $1.7 billion annually to operate a fleet of about 387,000 vehicles. GAO found that many federal agencies could not justify the number of vehicles they owned given what they needed to conduct their missions.

In one example, the Department of Interior Inspector General reported that a significant portion of the 36,000 vehicles owned by that Department were underutilized and estimated savings of $34 million annually if the excess vehicles were disposed of. In another example, a car had been parked behind a Veterans Affairs building since it was bought four years earlier. The vehicle had never been used; in fact, its keys were missing.

This waste of taxpayer dollars is inexcusable. Taxpayers should never be asked to pay for vehicles that are left unused or unaccounted for.

Even worse, the mismanagement of government-owned vehicles is not a new problem. In 1986, in response to reports of wasteful spending, Congress enacted legislation requiring federal agencies to keep better tabs on their vehicles through improved management and cost reductions. In 1994, GAO followed up with a study to determine how well federal agencies were following the law. GAO found that many agencies were not in compliance. Now, 10 years later, it appears that little has changed.

A large part of the problem is poor management of fleets and a lack of guidelines for making vehicle purchases. Furthermore, agencies are not keeping track of those purchases.

In recent months, the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have taken actions to require agencies to better manage their fleets. Under the new guidelines, agencies will be required to appoint a senior manager to oversee all aspects of fleet management, including costs and budget, to periodically review fleet size, and to invest in better fleet record-keeping systems.

These changes should make a real difference because they will inject much needed accountability into the system. Agencies that already have taken a closer look at their inventories recognized that they could save millions of dollars by downsizing their fleets. At the end of fiscal year 2003, for example, the Navy estimated savings of $3.7 million per year if installations reduced their vehicle fleets based on recommendations from audits and other reviews.

The savings that could be realized by improving fleet management are significant. At a time when we need every available dollar to secure our homeland, to fight the war against terrorism, and to meet pressing domestic needs, federal agencies must exercise fiscal restraint.

As chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, the chief oversight committee, I'll continue to press federal agencies to make progress in improving fleet management and reducing unnecessary spending. It shouldn't take another 10 years for federal agencies to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on unneeded vehicles.

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