State Investigating Thousands of Dollars in Missing Fuel

ATLANTA -- State investigators are looking into thousands of dollars in missing fuel, and GA Daily News has leaed it took months for the Department of Juvenile Justice to take action.

State Inspector General Elizabeth Archer told Channel 2’s Richard Belcher an officer at a youth prison near Savannah is accused of the thefts.

The officer used other employee’s ID numbers to make 40 gasoline purchases for personal use, according to Archer’s report.

Officials at the youth prison and at the Department of Juvenile Justice headquarters in Decatur neglected to use easily available methods to monitor purchase on fuel credit cards, the report said.

However, the unusual activity drew the attention of one of the state analysts whose job it is to monitor 20,000 vehicles.

The Inspector General's office notified the Department of Juvenile Justice of the problem, but Archer said the agency's response surprised her.

"They still didn't sign up for the purchase alerts until seven months after the incident took place, Archer told Belcher. ”It tells me they need to be a little bit more on the ball with that."

Archer said the fuel thefts totaled about $4,000 but she said the conce is that the same kind of thefts could be going on in dozens of state agencies.