You asked for the state fleet mileage reporting procedures, including frequency and whether they vary by user agency. You referenced a report indicating that one in five state-owned vehicles do not have monthly mileage reports.

The Department of Administrative Services' (DAS) Office of Fleet Operations is responsible for managing the state fleet, which consists of approximately 4,200 state-owned vehicles. In all, 107 agencies lease vehicles from DAS.

General Letter No. 115 sets out DAS' state fleet policy. The policy is the same for all state agencies leasing DAS vehicles and requires them to (1) keep daily, operator-certified mileage logs for each state-owned vehicle assigned to them and (2) submit monthly usage reports to DAS Fleet Operations. Drivers may use fleet vehicles to conduct official state business only. The policy prohibits them from using the vehicles for personal use, including any social, recreational, religious, or educational purpose, whether they are on or off duty. Agency heads must certify that the travel in the monthly usage reports is essential to the agency's official state business. Under the policy, the director of fleet operations may recall state-owned vehicles for repeated failures to provide these reports.

In May 2008, the Auditors of Public Accounts released a report on DAS for FYs 04 and 05. In it, the auditors wrote that their “review of mileage reporting system data provided by the agency revealed that approximately 81 percent of the required mileage reports are submitted on average for any given month.” According to DAS, mileage reporting compliance has increased since the auditors' study. For FY 06, DAS received 93% of the required mileage reports. For FY 07, it received 97%.

Beginning July 15, 2008, DAS implemented an electronic monthly mileage reporting system that solicits the same information as paper reports, except that “starting mileage” carries over from the previous month. DAS anticipates that the paperless format will make reporting easier and provide it with the opportunity to better track agency performance and identify missing reports.

HYPERLINKS

Department of Administrative Services, General Letter No. 115, http://www.das.state.ct.us/HR/om/March_2008_GL115.pdf, last visited July 30, 2008.

Auditors' Report, Department of Administrative Services for the Fiscal Years Ended June 30, 2004 and 2005, http://www.cga.ct.gov/apa/pdf2008/DAS_13210_05.pdf, last visited July 30, 2008.

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