In a review of leased vehicle management by selected agencies, GAO concluded that they are failing to identify and underused vehicles and that agency fleet managers are not taking full advantage of assistance offered by GSA.
At the National Park Service, for example, 47 percent of leased vehicles did not meet utilization criteria and did not have readily available justifications for retaining them. At Bureau of Indian Affairs, it was 22 percent, at Veterans Health Administration 14 percent, Air Force 8 percent and NASA 4 percent. The total cost of leasing those vehicles was $8.7 million, GAO said.
Those agencies did take steps to manage vehicle utilization, but their processes did not always determine if all vehicles were used or have justifications for those that did not meet utilization criteria, GAO said. The agencies also kept some that did not pass or even undergo a justification review, it said.
GSA provides guidance in reducing underused leased vehicles in writing and through its fleet service representatives, who are expected to be in communication with agency fleet managers on the issue at least annually. However, 18 of the 51 agency fleet managers GAO surveyed said they never had spoken to a GSA representative about vehicle utilization, and “GSA has no mechanism to ensure these discussions occur and therefore may miss opportunities to help agencies identify underutilized vehicles.”
It said that government-wide, agencies spent about $1 billion in 2014 to lease about 186,000 vehicles from GSA, and that the agencies concurred with the report’s recommendations.
