The city’s independent audit office determined last year that at least a handful of departments were improperly tagging more than $1 million worth of its property and that two city vehicles were “unlocatable” at the time.
During a performance audit completed in August 2024, the Office of Internal Audit (OIA) found “significant issues” with how city departments were keeping track of a number of their inventories, including “nine assets valued at $110,113” the city was unable to locate at the time.
Among those nine assets were a 2023 Ford F150 and a 2016 Ford Fusion that were marked as “unlocatable or unconfirmable.” Staci Drangmeister, a spokesperson for Mayor Tim Keller’s administration, told City Desk ABQ that the two Albuquerque Police Department vehicles “are accounted for and in APD’s possession.”
The OIA also found that the city failed to follow “asset transfer and disposal processes” and that “26 capital assets worth $1,204,087” were not properly tagged or tracked. The report, which analyzed a sample size of 259 items, also found “a lack of awareness and training among some departments regarding asset management guidelines.”
Below is a breakdown of the cost of the 26 items and how they were improperly tagged:
- 13 items totaling $474,380 were not tagged
- Eight items totaling $692,418 had no unit number
- Three items totaling $29,661 were mis-tagged
- Two items totaling $7,628 either had their tags kept separately or they fell off
During the audit process, city staff reportedly gave auditors various reasons for not following the tagging process, including “being unaware that a director’s or a supervisor’s vehicles needed to have a tag, not understanding that buses under contract to an outside vendor still needed to have tags, or not understanding the need to fix damaged or missing tags.”
The OIA also noted that when auditors rented a city vehicle to conduct field works, they found an “unknown laptop” in the trunk, which cost the city $1,289.
The OIA recommended the Department of Finance and Administration Services (DFAS) communicate with city departments and make sure they “verify the existence of those items or update their asset documentation accordingly” so the city has “better control” and a “reduced risk of asset loss or misappropriation.”
Drangmeister told City Desk ABQ that, “DFAS and the city actually appreciate the audits and their ability to dive deep and identify areas for improvement.”
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