LITTLE ROCK — The state’s top fiscal officer told lawmakers Wednesday that his agency should have a more up-to-date online inventory of state vehicles completed in coming months.
Richard Weiss, the director of the Department of Finance and Administration, cautioned the Legislature’s Budget Committee that any total his agency lists as the number of state vehicles may not mean much. He said that the day after that tally is taken, an agency may sell numerous vehicles or buy numerous vehicles.
He said that means that the total “could vary by a few hundred day to day.”
That bothered Sen. Robert Thompson, DParagould.
“I don’t like that answer because that tells us we can’t rely on what you’re giving us so we don’t really have a good picture on what’s going on out there,” Thompson said. “Is there not a way we can know with certainty what’s going on? Can you not give us an average number that some agency has so we can see if those numbers are remaining flat or going down or going up?”
Weiss said putting together an inventory is “labor intensive” but it “should provide the kind of information you’re looking for.”
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He said he’s asked agencies to get his department more information by Monday and it will probably take his staff at least a month of work after that. He said part of the problem is that agencies keep track of their vehicles in different ways and that he wants to be able to report the data in a uniform format.
Rep. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, asked if Weiss could be more definitive on whether the finance department could produce some sort of average vehicle count.
“It seems an average could really help us in seeing trends,” Wilkins said.
Weiss said he was sure “we could come up with something like that.”
Counts of state vehicles have varied in recent months.
Weiss presented the committee with figures showing that the total state vehicles declined from 8,709 in fiscal 2009 to 8,565 in fiscal 2010.
His agency’s most recent vehicle count, in December, was 8,579.
In July, the total was 8,653 and by September it was 8,771.
On Oct. 5 the governor issued an executive order that restricted state-vehicle commuting and required a more thorough and public listing of state vehicles after a series of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette articles on how many vehicles the state owns, who uses them, whether the users pay income tax for the personal use of the vehicles, and other issues.
Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, said he was glad the administration was re-evaluating vehicle use. He said that sometimes “laxness creeps and sloppiness creeps in” with keeping up with things, such as state vehicles.
“I think this whole discussion has been healthy,” Luker said.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 01/27/2011