The official in charge of monitoring the use of cars at the city’s Board of Correction was abusing the system himself, according to an audit by Comptroller John Liu.
Liu’s auditors found that the agency’s transportation coordinator, who was not identified by name, was charged with drunken driving on Jan. 19, 2008.
That information was never entered into the state’s License Event Notification System, as required by city policy.
So the board, which oversees the city’s jails, didn’t learn of the DWI charge and later conviction, the auditors reported.
When his license was eventually restored, the car czar resumed using the agency’s vehicle even though the DWI on his record made him ineligible, the auditors said.
The official got into an accident in the very same government car on Aug. 10, 2010, but it still took eight months before the board yanked the car keys.
Without the board’s knowledge, the official managed to finagle another city vehicle from the Department of Correction on July 18 of this year, the auditors said.
The agency’s director told Liu new procedures were put in place to monitor vehicle use.