Connecticut state auditors found that Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles officials did not obtain approvals for their employees to use and take-home state vehicles, failed to investigate complaints regarding state vehicle use, and paid over $100,000 to employees who were on paid administrative leave far beyond the allowable number of days over the course of 2021 and 2022.
The DMV is assigned 86 state vehicles, including 49 “home garaged” state vehicles for DMV employees, and 37 state vehicles parked at state facilities. The auditors selected five home garaged vehicles and five parked at the state and determined that none of the five home garaged vehicles had approvals from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), which maintains Connecticut’s fleet.
Auditors then expanded their inquiry and found an additional 22 home garaged vehicles did not have DAS authorization.
Although state vehicles are required to be parked overnight at state facilities, the DMV in their response, indicated it had “written permission” from DAS “for field employees to park vehicles at locations central to their work areas,” the DMV wrote in their response. “This is their official duty station and complies with their [collective bargaining agreement].”
The auditors also found the DMV failed to investigate complaints filed regarding speeding and reckless driving of state vehicles within the required thirty-day window, including a complaint against a DMV employee who was not approved by DAS to use a state vehicle, and the department did not maintain a log of state vehicle usage complaints.
“DAS closed two investigations because DMV failed to investigate and respond to DAS Fleet Operations within the 30-day requirement in General Letter No. 115,” the auditors wrote in their report. “The cases were open for 89 and 101 days. The complaints involved speeding and reckless driving, in which one contractor did not have DAS Fleet Operations authorization to operate the vehicle.”
Reckless use of state vehicles by state employees came to the forefront in Connecticut’s state government following a report by Inside Investigator that revealed the extensive use of a state vehicle for personal use by Gov. Ned Lamont’s former Chief of Staff and special advisor, Jonathan Dach. According to the vehicle’s GPS tracking device, at one point the car hit 113 miles per hour and showed numerous other instances of excessive speeding. Dach resigned shortly after an independent investigation launched by Lamont confirmed Inside Investigator’s findings.
“We agree with this finding,” the DMV wrote in their response. “All complaints should be investigated and appropriate action taken and that tracking logs should be kept and maintained. ATA will notify Fleet Ops of the complaints and outcomes when the investigation is completed.”
State auditors also found several employees were place on paid administrative leave for far longer than the 15 day limit outlined in state statute when an employee is under investigation for alleged serious misconduct that could result in termination – an ever-present issue in Connecticut government, as investigation tend to take much longer and employees cannot be returned to work or terminated while an investigation is still pending.
“Our review identified six employees on paid administrative leave exceeding the 15-day limit by five to 132 days. The employees received $131,943 in paid administrative leave. Of this amount, $107,240 should not have been allowed because it exceeded 15 days,” the auditors wrote.
Both the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and DMV responded that 15 days was too little time to conduct an investigation. Auditor findings for other departments, like the Department of Correction, have found employees spending years on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of investigation, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars paid over the statutory time limit.
Although the excessive paid administrative leave time was new to this audit period, unapproved use of state vehicles by DMV employees had been previously reported. The audit also found the department was excessively late in restricting access to computer systems by Connecticut car dealers who had their licenses revoked, a lack of administrative oversight of employee overtime and compensatory time, and a lack of medical leave certificates.
In total, eight findings were repeated from previous audits.
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