RALEIGH — An investigative audit report issued by the North Carolina State Auditors Office has found the misuse of some vehicles belonging to Guilford County Public Schools (GCS).
The report says allegations were received that three GCS vehicles were being used for personal use. The vehicles were assigned to GCS’ Building Services Department.
Auditors were unable to unable to determine if the allegations were true “because the Department did not maintain documentation of vehicle usage,” according to the report’s findings.
The three vehicles included in the allegations were a Chevrolet Tahoe assigned to the Senior Executive Director, a Ford Explorer assigned to the Director of Maintenance and Operations, and a Nissan Pathfinder assigned to the Director of Health and Safety, Custodial Services, and Logistics.
GSC disagreed with the findings, stating in their response “To be clear, there was no evidence that the vehicles were used inappropriately at any time by any employee.”
“The School System’s statement is misleading,” the audit report countered. “As clearly stated in the report, there was no way to determine if the vehicles were used for personal use because there was no documentation to support the business purpose for the miles driven and the locations traveled to for the three vehicles included in the allegation.”
GCS also said, “All three of the directors are aware of and abide by the policy and there is no evidence to the contrary.”
The audit report also labeled that response as “misleading” because there was no documentation to support any of the travel done in the vehicles.
The state auditor’s office recommended GCS shore up its accounting and procedures for district owned vehicles.
