No fleet misuse found at colleges

There's no fleet vehicle misuse in Utah's public higher education system, although issues of who insures some of the cars and how some perks are reported to the IRS still remain.

That was essentially the report heard Thursday during a meeting of the State Board of Regents.

"There's nothing I see to be a problem," said Mark Spencer, associate commissioner for finance and facilities.

An audit of fuel card and vehicle use was prompted after Salt Lake County officials came under fire earlier this year for apparent misuse of county vehicles.

Administrators from each of Utah's 10 public colleges and universities were asked in June to compile individual reports that detailed automobile and gas card privileges for employees.

A synopsis of those reports given to regents indicated that no institution found any state fuel card transaction that was out of line.

On state-funded vehicle usage, the two-page report showed that a total 34 employees receive a vehicle allowance of $1,050 to $9,600. Another 172 individuals have cars "assigned" to them and 99 individuals, which includes college and university presidents, have commute "privileges," allowing them to use a car assigned to them to drive to and from work as well as using it during the workday.

It was noted that many coaches are allowed to drive cars donated to their schools by automobile dealerships.

The questions regent Jed Pitcher raised were how these coaches were reporting use of the cars to the Internal Revenue Service and whether the school, the individual or the dealerships were insuring the vehicles.

Specifically, the report to regents stated, "some institutions have not followed IRS methodology in reporting these benefits as employee compensation."

School officials have been asked to do a little more digging in time for next regents meeting.

A separate one-page summary by institution of vehicle allowances showed 11 for the University of Utah, 19 for Utah State University and four for the Utah College of Applied Technology.

While officials say there may be some "double counting" of assigned vehicles, USU led the way with 55, followed by the U. at 49, then Weber State University with 31, according to the summary. All other schools had 10 or fewer personal vehicle assignments.

The U. led commute privileges with 38; USU reported 21 and WSU 17. All others had eight or fewer people with this benefit.

Spencer said gas card and vehicle privileges are already reported to the state, which acts as a second set of eyes or oversight. "I think it would be useful for us to have an annual report."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com