I am somewhat pleased and surprised the abuse of government’s Gasboy fuel card system is  resurfacing. After the Auditor General Dan Duguay’s original report highlighted an abuse of around $500,000 that COULD have been fraudulently obtained from government’s fuel station in North Sound. Mr. Duguay thought at least one third of the transactions he reviewed were “suspicious.” His report said he found nearly every control in place to monitor usage had been circumvented or inadequately controlled.

The fuel management system used at the Department of Vehicle and Equipment Services is a GASBOY card. Workers issued with it are ones who need to fuel public vehicles. The audit found that there were 1,600 cards in use at the time or one card for every person working in the public sector. Cards that were active were issued to people who had resigned and there were more than 100 incidences of two or more cards being issued to the same employee!

“The issue of fuel card distribution indicates a total lack of control and responsibility,” Duguay said.

There were multiple transactions on a given card in the space of one hour, as well as purchases on vehicle cards that were in excess of a vehicle’s fuel capacity

The RCIPS made their own investigation because they were one of the FIVE biggest users of the government fuel depot and Commissioner David Baines denied there was any significant abuse by his department. He suggested the problem was poor management of the system and not that fuel had been obtained fraudulently. That’s good.

So, I was convinced that with the departure of “Dan the Man” Duguay, he was not rehired because he had actually done the job he had been paid to do, the whole matter had been swept under the big carpets in the government heads office suites

But along came Alastair Swarbrick, the new Auditor General, and he is doing his job, too. Much to the annoyance of both the Premier and the Deputy Premier and government civil servant heads.

We have been sent an invite to attend Mr Swarbrick’s updated report next Tuesday “relating to the abuse of government’s Gasboy fuel card!!!!!

Well. Well.