30,000 state cars missing in California

SACRAMENTO, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- California has 70,000 state-owned vehicles but has yet to find 30,000 of them in an asset-management push by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"We were amazed by how inadequate the information (was)," Fred Aguiar, secretary in charge of California's State and Consumer Services Agency.

"The data coming from departments and agencies of state in regards to procurement was terrible," Aguiar told the Los Angeles Daily News.

It was "so bad," he said, that one state agency had no record of where it bought $4 million in cars. California paid $33.6 million for vehicles in 2004, the newspaper reported.

Legislation requires state agencies to get formal approval and report details about vehicle purchases.

California is building a database of that information with a $175,000 system created by consulting firm The Gartner Group.

"The fact that California didn't know where its fleet was is a little disconcerting," said Steve Frates, a McKenna College expert on government management practices. "The fact they're taking corrective action is good, but long overdue."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

Maybe they should put the cars on probation - even if the numbers are like those in the recent story on Dallas they would still know where more of them are.