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City Wasted $855K on Parking Enforcement Vehicles, Audit Finds
Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
City Controller Wendy Greuel is at it again and tomorrow plans to release an audit detailing how the city's Department of Transportation wasted $855,000 and exceeded a contract by nearly $2.5 million.
Basically, LADOT contracted with a company in 2001 to lease Automated Vehicle Locator Systems (AVLS) for the parking enforcement fleet. Although they could have bought them for $1 a piece in 2006, officials said they went through with a lease because of needed software upgrades over the years. But Greuel found that no upgrads have occurred since 2006. So instead of several hundred dollars, $577,584 has been spent over the last four years for leasing the equipment. Additionally, 178 AVLS units have sat in storage since 2008, costing $7,462 a month, or a total of $141,773.
Gruel became savvy to the nonsense via a tip to the Waste, Fraud and Abuse hotline. Full details about the audit will be released Tuesday morning.
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