HAFB lost big bucks on 'ghost riders'
In the Cash version, ghosts tell a cowboy to change or face an eternity in hell chasing a ghost herd. In the Hill version, inspectors tell the base it made a heck of a mistake by throwing away cash on an apparent herd of "ghosts" it erroneously assumed were riding in Utah Transit Authority van pools and buses.
Problems came from such things as continuing to pay for people who had moved, not spotting that some van pools claimed to have more riders than could actually fit in the vans (later spot-checks would find most were actually less than half-full), and not noticing some people claimed to ride in both vans and buses at the same time.
As Cash might have said about the stinging findings, "Yippee ki-ohhhh."
All that unnecessarily cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, according to U.S. Air Force Audit Agency reports written last year but just obtained by the Deseret News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Barbara Hanlin, director of manpower and personnel at the base, said the problems found by auditors have been corrected. She said that the base has "hired a full-time employee to oversee the UTA program, establish an improved process and address the issues discovered in the audit."
Because of the large number of participants, auditors wrote that they decided to look at how Hill handles a program set up by Congress to pay for employees' mass transit system bus passes or van pools. For example, it said records showed that 1,100 base employees rode in 124 vans leased from the UTA.
But auditors quickly found that 120 van-pool vouchers were issued each month either for "ghosts" who did not actually ride in vans or for contractors who did not qualify for the program that is for Air Force employees only.
Reports said that "104 individuals had retired, resigned or relocated," which is enough "ghost riders" to fill seven 15-passenger vans.
Besides that, auditors wrote, "12 individuals' names appeared in the DOT (Department of Transportation) records twice," so two vouchers were being issued each month for them instead of one. And "four contractor personnel who were not eligible for fare media" were receiving them anyway.
Auditors also noted that officials overseeing the program at Hill had not noticed that "14 van pools had more applicants assigned than the van seating capacity could accommodate." Hill allowed van drivers to pick up vouchers for everyone supposedly in their group, rather than making each individual sign for them.
Recent comments
Another UTA Scandal!
This is not unique to UTA. Sure, UTA may...
JLH | July 8, 2008 at 10:45 a.m.
There have been two scandals of miscounting/misreporting ridership...
Another UTA Scandal! | July 7, 2008 at 10:02 p.m.
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Vaugn Monroe | July 7, 2008 at 9:47 p.m.
