Gov. Ned Lamont’s office repeatedly failed to follow state vehicle usage monitoring, asset management and timesheet rules, a new state audit revealed.
“Our methodology included reviewing written policies and procedures, financial records, and other pertinent documents,” the report states. “We also obtained an understanding of legal provisions that are significant within the context of the audit objectives, and we assessed the risk that illegal acts, including fraud, and violations of contracts, grant agreements, or other legal provisions could occur.”
Auditors John Geragosian and Craig Miner, along with Michael Koonz and Jaimey Makie, compiled the report regarding the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years.
They found that Lamont’s staff did not adequately maintain daily mileage logs and monthly reports for vehicles under their care. The governor’s office was assigned three state vehicles, according to the audit, with one for Lamont’s use and the other two as a “pool” with no single assigned operator — to be used for state business only. They also noted that vehicles were not parked overnight at state-approved locations on dozens of occasions, as required by state policy.
The auditors cited a lack of management oversight for the violations.
“To address this matter the Office of the Governor (OTG) has developed policies and procedures…clarifying the permissible use of motor vehicles for state business,” the governor’s office said in response to the findings. “These guidelines will ensure all employees understand their responsibilities and the limits of vehicle use.”
The audit’s findings follow an investigation earlier this year that concluded Lamont’s then-chief of staff, Jonathan Dach, misused a state vehicle as his personal car and drove recklessly for nearly two years.
The governor’s office also misreported property, including not being able to locate or not accurately recording the location of 15 items, worth over $30,000 collectively — and failing to log certain assets electronically in a state database. They also listed over 90 in-service laptops and computers, even though the office only had approximately 30 employees.
“Without accurate inventory records, there is an increased risk that inventory can be lost or stolen and go undetected,” the auditors said. “It could also lead to the Office of [the] State Comptroller reporting inaccurate asset information in the state’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.”
The OTG response said that laptops are replaced “at the end of their warranty period,” but that decommissioned devices may be used by interns, fellows or by staff during repair and service. They said that a number of laptops have also been transferred to the state’s office of workforce strategy, and others are being retired but were not represented on the inventory.
“We formed our conclusions based on the asset locations and status according to the office’s inventory records and the Core-CT Asset Management module at the time we performed our testing,” the auditors said.
The report also found Lamont’s office negligent in approving timesheets, having approved time without direct knowledge of employee work hours and locations and without written procedures.
“We agree with the finding that during FY23 and FY24 not all timesheets were approved by an individual with direct knowledge of employee work hours,” the agency said in response.
The office said that in their previous regimen, approvers were able to verify the accuracy of timesheets with employees’ supervisors “as necessary, when the approver lacked direct knowledge.”
“To avoid the need for that verification step, OTG has resumed the practice of having supervisors approve timesheets for employees they supervise…[and is] in the process of developing written timesheet approval procedures to reflect this practice,” the office said.
The audit also follows up on a prior report‘s recommendation that the governor’s office should ensure that the state’s Office of Workforce Strategy complies with reporting requirements, since OTG was administratively responsible for their output.
A 2023 state act moved administrative oversight of workforce strategy away from the governor’s office, instead to the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, alleviating their responsibility on the matter, the audit said.
“We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards, [which] require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives,” Geragosian and Miner said. “We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.”