Highway Patrol having trouble tracking its things, audit finds

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Monday, March 3, 2008 | 2 a.m.

On the heels on an investigation into missing weapons and drugs from a locker in Fallon used by law enforcement agencies, an auditor’s report says the Nevada Highway Patrol can’t keep track of its credit cards or its equipment, including weapons and three vehicles.

Legislative Auditor Sandra McGuirk reports the Highway Patrol doesn’t have an accurate record of its fuel and other credit cards and can’t identify the holders of 200 cards.

Highway Patrol Chief Chris Perry told the Legislative Audit Committee on Friday that a new system has been installed to better track the cards. “As an interim solution, management has canceled all fuel cards and reissued cards,” Perry said. Former employees trying to use the older fuel cards will be denied.

The audit also said the patrol does not follow the law in performing an annual physical count of equipment and that it’s unsure when the last count was done. “Without accurate records of the equipment, the agency is at risk for theft or loss going undetected,” the report said.

McGuirk said auditors were unable to find five of the 50 equipment items tested, including three vehicles.

The patrol confirmed it no longer has the assets but could not tell where they went. Perry said a new computer software system will enable the patrol to keep better track of its equipment.

The patrol does conduct an annual count of its weapons but it never reported lost or stolen guns and other items. One record indicates the patrol no longer has 103 weapons.

But there were no property disposition reports for the weapons. Perry also said that would be cleared up.

An investigation began last year into evidence missing from the vault of the state Public Safety Department in Fallon. The items may include as many as 90 handguns and rifles and large quantities of methamphetamine and other drugs. The state attorney general’s office has also started a criminal investigation into the disappearance of the items.

•••

State government is already hurting for money. Now it’s in a battle with Big Tobacco that could cost it another $35 million.

“It could mean the loss of tens of millions of dollars,” Senior Deputy Attorney General Victoria Thimmesch Oldenburg says.

A preliminary round will be played out Tuesday before the Nevada Supreme Court when the state squares off against the likes of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris over a technical legal issue.

The hearing involves a 1998 settlement that allowed cigarette companies to pay a percentage of revenue to states which promised not to sue over health issues caused by tobacco products. Tobacco companies want to reduce those payments, saying the 42 states didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

They argue that the case should be heard by a panel of three former federal judges that would settle the dispute nationally. But Oldenburg says the local dispute should be heard by a district judge because it’s covered under Nevada law.

District Judge Brent Adams of Reno already ruled in favor of the tobacco companies.

The Supreme Court is expected to take the case under submission after hearing arguments Tuesday.

•••

The original design of the so-called Spaghetti Bowl intersection in Henderson turned out to be a nightmare.

The plans were defective, with numerous errors and omissions, according to the state Transportation Department, and it wants an international engineering and design company to bear some of the added cost of the $94 million project at the intersection of I-215 and I-515 on the Las Vegas Southern Beltway.

A suit has been filed by the state in district court in Carson City against Parsons Brinckerhoff Group Administration, which has 250 offices around the world and 9,000 employees. The group’s founder, William Barclay Parsons, designed the original New York subway.

In 1998 Parsons Brinckerhoff won the $7 million contract to design the Henderson project.

But the contractor, Washington Group International, told the state the plans were defective. The state paid design consultant CH2M Hill $211,149 to make corrections and Washington Group International an additional $9.4 million for the extra work it performed because of the alleged design deficiencies.

The state’s suit says Parsons Brinckerhoff has refused to pay the added costs for the poor design.

Cy Ryan may be reached at (775) 687 5032 or at cy@lasvegassun.com.