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Audit questions Tampa police gasoline purchases

By Janet Zink, Times staff writer
In print: Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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TAMPA — Where did the gas go?

An internal audit released last week raises questions about whether Tampa police officers were improperly using their city-issued Shell credit cards for gas purchases.

"We could not conclusively determine if all gas purchases were for city of Tampa vehicles and for business purposes," concludes the audit.

The report said 77 transactions show officers bought more gas than the tanks of their city-issued cars could hold. In some cases, they bought twice as much as the fuel tank capacity.

The audit also found 146 gas purchases totaling more than $5,700 identified by officers as being for cars that have been impounded or confiscated after drug arrests, even though such cars are generally not driven.

Assistant police Chief Michael George attributed most of the irregularities to bookkeeping errors.

"I feel certain that all the gas was used appropriately for city business," he said.

In no cases did officers use their credit cards on days they weren't on duty, which would have been the most obvious indication of misuse, according to Roger Strout, director of the city's internal audit department.

George said new procedures should make it easier to track gas purchases.

Auditors also rapped police officers for wasting more than $3,000 on purchases of premium gas. The department requires using regular gas in most circumstances.

Five officers were disciplined for using premium gas.

"The premium usage concerned us because that was $3,000 we didn't need to spend," George said. "In tight budget times, every dollar counts."

All city vehicles have an identification number that must be logged in when officers use a city credit card to buy gas.

George said in most situations flagged by auditors, officers simply used the wrong vehicle numbers.

For example, five times in which fuel purchases exceeded the capacity of the car identified as getting the fillup, officers were actually fueling a marine patrol boat, he said. In 16 cases, according to George, officers were gassing up undercover vehicles that either didn't have a vehicle number or officers didn't know what the number was.

George accounted for 56 of the 77 questionable purchases with those types of explanations.

Similarly, he said, officers incorrectly used an identification number reserved for vehicles that have been impounded after the vehicles had become part of the city fleet.

The audit looked at all 145,636 gasoline purchases from December 2005 through May 2007 using the department's 1,136 Shell cards.

The Tampa Police Department purchased 1.2-million gallons of gas for $2.3-million in 2005. In 2007, gas usage increased nearly 5 percent to 1.3-million gallons, which cost $3-million.

George said an increase in extra duty assignments bumped up the quantity of fuel purchases.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.