Globe Staff Reporter

A state audit has found that Revere's Public Works Department lacked oversight over certain operations, including handling cash and distributing gas from city-owned pumps.

The 25-page report from state auditor Joseph DeNucci's office, released Tuesday, states that 46,243 gallons of taxpayer-funded gas was pumped by city employees in a two-year period without an adequate regulatory system. That number is out of 121,510 total gallons used by city workers, the report said.

"We found that this system could not adequately ensure that gasoline was being utilized for city-related activities only," the audit report stated. "We found that this system's controls can be, and during our audit period frequently were, overridden."

The city-requested audit, at a cost of $25,000, reviewed other DPW functions from Jan. 1, 2005, through Dec. 31, 2006, including supply purchases, inventory records, attendance and leave of absence compliance policies, vehicle management, and the department's fee collection process.

According to the findings, the DPW was in compliance with laws and regulations pertaining to purchases and employment attendance practices. Where the department needs to improve is in its "internal controls over its collection of fees, gasoline distribution activities, inventory of furnishings and equipment items, and it may want to review the need for some of its staff to take home city vehicles," the report states.

The state, as well as city officials, noted that the city has already begun to address some of the problems.

Donald Goodwin, superintendent of the Revere DPW, said he hadn't seen the final audit report last week, but added that he became aware of the department's inventory problem in 2001, when he asked the city to purchase a bar-coding system to keep track of purchases and equipment. City administrators were in favor of such a system but told Goodwin it would have to wait until the city's computer system was upgraded, Goodwin said. The city recently upgraded the system.

"I don't know why it took so long," Goodwin said. "All I know is I asked for it back in 2001 and they said they'd get it to us. . . . There's nothing really missing; we just need to upgrade our technology. We have a system going in place right now, but it does need to be upgraded."

The audit points out the DPW needs to establish better controls over its equipment inventory, including safeguards against loss, theft, or misuse.

"Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for a jackhammer three times," said City Councilor George Rotondo. "The issue here is preventing tax increases when possible. All this does is create efficiency, more accountability, and ensures that people get what they paid for."

Goodwin disagreed with the audit's conclusion on the city's use of gasoline. According to the audit, the control system called Gasboy, which uses a two-key system to monitor the employee and the vehicle for which gas is being pumped, was overridden 3,578 times for a total of 46,243 gallons. The override system is in place for workers lacking both keys or those using a general departmental key. Up to nine city departments use the two DPW pumps, including the School Department, Housing Authority, and fire and police departments.

"There are other departments that come here to take gasoline and we get reimbursed for what they take," Goodwin said. "Within my department, we have vehicle keys, so we know when a person takes fuel. The other departments would just take a house key. That's where the unaccountable gasoline is coming from. . . . I would feel better if nobody came to my place to get gas, because I can account for most of what comes out of our department."

But the audit points out that the DPW overrode the system 1,381 times while pumping 17,182 gallons of gas. It also found that three of five DPW employees who sometimes use their personal vehicles for city business exceeded their 10-gallons-per-week allowance, one of them by more than 1,400 gallons during the audit period, which went undetected by DPW staff.

"There is inadequate assurance that all of the gasoline used by the city, which totaled 121,510 gallons for all city departments during our audit period, was used for city-related purposes only," the audit states.

It also pointed to the lack of policies and restrictions in place for the seven DPW staffers allowed to take home city vehicles for emergencies. The auditor suggested the DPW determine whether it is necessary that all seven take vehicles home.

Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino said he was "fairly familiar with the shortcomings" pointed out in the audit, and that the city has already found solutions for many of the problems, including looking into replacing the outdated Gasboy technology, which was last upgraded in 2004. Some employees without the appropriate gas keys are now given a monthly travel stipend ranging from $125 to $250, Ambrosino said.

"But there are many legitimate times where the system is overridden," Ambrosino said. "I guess the auditor's point was that it's impossible to tell every time it was used for legitimate purposes and every time it may not have been. In this interim period we are documenting every use of the override key."

Regarding the inventory control problem, Ambrosino said he hopes that by January, items valued at more than $500 will be bar-coded.

Another deficiency within the department, according to the audit, was the lack of rules and procedures for permit fee collection and cash deposits, including missing cash receipt logs for two months in 2005 and no recorded revenue for six street opening permits that should have yielded $1,200. Revere began using prenumbered invoices and cash receipt slips last year.

The audit also noted that the city's policy against charging utility companies for street opening permits, at $200 each, missed out on collecting $20,000 in revenue.

"I knew that we did not have great controls in 2005-2006 in the way we handled cash citywide," Ambrosino said. "So we implemented new methods in 2007. . . . We're trying. The auditors recognize we're trying to address these problems."