The Virginia Department of Corrections lost $65,000 last year because it used the wrong mileage reimbursement rates for state vehicles, a state audit has found. State employees who are allowed to take state-owned vehicles home must reimburse the state when they use the vehicle to commute to and from work, but because the corrections department used the wrong formula for calculating what those employees owed, it collected less than half the amount it was required to charge.
The corrections department used a rate of 26 cents per mile to calculate mileage reimbursement for those employees, even though the state requires them to pay according to Internal Revenue Service guidelines, which set reimbursement rates at 55 cents per mile between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2009, and 50 cents per mile after Jan. 1, 2010.
The department deducted about $63,700 in commuting fees from the paychecks of 62 employees during fiscal 2010. But based on the state-approved rates, corrections should have deducted about $65,000 more, the audit said. It’s not clear how long the department was using the 26-cent rate so the losses could actually be larger, the audit found.
In response to the audit, the corrections department changed its mileage reimbursement rate to 51 cents as of May 25 and said it would make rate changes as necessary.
In response to soaring gas prices, the IRS recently bumped up mileage reimbursement rates again — to 55.5 cents per mile starting July 1 — which caused a bump in what Virginia charges state employees, according to Michael Bisogno, director of the state’s Office of Fleet Management Services.
Attempts to reach a Department of Corrections spokesman to explain whether the fleet rate reflects the new IRS rate and why the department used the lower rate in the first place were unsuccessful.
Auditors also found that the corrections department wasn’t adequately documenting fuel card charges. The department blamed the lack of oversight on staff shortages and is now studying whether monthly reviews of those statements are worth the money potentially lost to card misuse or incorrect charges.
