Luzerne County Government

March 24, 2010

Gas cards assigned to county vehicles

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Gas cards used to fuel up at Luzerne County’s pump will now be assigned to specific county vehicles, allowing officials to match mileage to fuel usage, said county Controller Walter Griffith.

Griffith recently called for more accountability with gas cards, saying the county’s lack of uniform logs and a video camera at the pump leave his office with no way to prove that gas is going only into county vehicles as required.

The county’s 288 active cards, which require passwords to activate the pump, were supplied to departments with county vehicles. Department heads are supposed to monitor gas-card usage. Some keep detailed logs, while others don’t.

Starting next month, each county vehicle will be assigned a card that must remain with the vehicle, Griffith said. A login sheet will also be kept for each vehicle identifying the employee who pumped the gas and the vehicle’s mileage at the time of pumping, he said.

Griffith said he prefers the new system to a camera because nobody is available to constantly monitor a camera.

“It would be good if we find there’s a problem to go back, but it would be after the fact. I want to make sure problems don’t happen,” he said.

The controller started looking at the fuel because he noticed that the sheriff’s office was billed for $1,500 in gas from the county pump last month, with no backup report on which vehicles were fueled.

The pump, located near the county engineering office off Water Street, dispensed about 210,176 gallons in the past year, records show. The fuel at the pump is exempt from tax because it is used for county vehicles.

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