Do We need More Hunters?:"

Although I've never been a hunter I come from a state which makes a big deal out of hunting and I support hunters and properly managed wildlife management programs. However, one form of hunting I think out to be avidly supported, nation-wide, with a year-round open season is wasters like these government ner-do-wells in California.

Hunting for state vehicles
By David M. Drucker Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO -- California's fleet of state-owned vehicles swelled to 70,000 last year, but officials in an aggressive new asset-management push have so far been able to pinpoint only about 40,000....
(full article here)
http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_2922404

How would you like to be responsible for buying, and then losing track of 30,000 vehicles? Shocked? Appalled? Mystified? Unsure of your own abilities? Embarrassed by your betrayal of the public who had placed their trust in you?

Well, apparently, if you are like a large number of alleged government managers in California, you'd just say "hoo hum" and go play golf or something. Sad, indeed.

No one denies California is a huge state. Not long ago I believe I saw an article that said CA was the world's sixth largest economy on it's own, or some such awe-inspiring statistic. But really, folks, can anyone even begin to justify losing 30 thousand or more vehicles? But even knowing where they bought the vehicles? Not knowing who's using them? This is a situation which just spins my blood pressure right off the scale.

And California is not unique! A few months ago Minnesota admitted they couldn't account for over 7,000 vehicles. two months ago Colorado found that the state agency that was supposed to manage vehicles not only wasn't managing them but was allowing other agencies to just buy as they wanted. Using an expensive computer system that the legislature bought them to track expenses resulted in "management data" that showed the state was paying from $0 to $300+ per oil change ... that's pinning it down, isn't it? *sigh* Mississippi is out of control too, one State Senator (Biily Thames) is fighting an uphill battle to find out why Mississippi's count of state employees has dropped measurably since the year 2000, yet the size of the government fleet has increased at least 800 vehicles ... about 10%.

Where are these cars and trucks? And what are they doing for the governments who own them? It isn't the total numbers that give one pause, it's the fact that in state after state, no one knows. Is your state any better off? What about your county and your city? These are questions that really beg an answer.

As regular readers know, I deal in technology that can help manage vehicle fleets. But, sad to say, unless someone is willing to jump in and live up to their responsibilities, my technology and my competitor's as well are virtually useless.

You can't manage what you don't acknowledge you need to manage ... that's the first step.