AUDIT COMMITTEE SUMMARY
December 15, 2020
Audit of San Antonio Police Department - Municipal Wrecker Service Contract
Report Issued December 7, 2020
Audit Objective
Determine if the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) contract for citywide towing services is effectively managed.
Background
The City of San Antonio contracts with United Road Vehicle Management Solutions (URVMS) to provide police-directed towing management services for the SAPD. The contract began on December 1, 2015 with a duration of four years. It was renewed on October 14, 2019 for one additional two-year term expiring on November 30, 2021.
SAPD manages the contract through its Contract Towing Office (CTO). To facilitate this process, SAPD has assigned a contract coordinator to monitor the contract using a contract administration plan (CAP). Additionally, every year the contract coordinator conducts a performance review of URVMS to determine contract compliance.
URVMS subcontracts with the following four towing companies and dispatch company to provide towing services: Richard’s Towing, Texas Towing Corp., Mission Wrecker Service, Texas Roadside Services, and CAARS, Inc. (dispatch company).
By contract, URVMS is required to maintain a 98% on-time rating for all service calls. The contract allows SAPD to penalize URVMS if this on-time percentage rating is not maintained. For fiscal year (FY) 2019, 62,631 tows were performed by the contractor via its subcontractors.
The City receives a commission fee of $7 per tow plus any fees associated with violations incurred by the towing companies. These violations can include response time violations, improper display of City badge, or improper use of safety chains. For FY 2019, the City earned $345,898 in commission fees and assessed $1,475 in violation fees.
Scope & Methodology
The audit scope included SAPD monitoring processes for key terms in the URVMS contract from January 1, 2017 through March 31, 2020. We reviewed the CAP to determine if SAPD was adequately monitoring key contract terms. We obtained billing reports to determine if SAPD accurately remitted payments to URVMS for towing services and if URVMS was accurately making commission payments to the SAPD. We obtained vehicle inspection reports to determine if SAPD was performing bi-annual vehicle inspections. Finally, we reviewed driver background and training records to determine if they were qualified to perform services under the contract.
Conclusions
SAPD has controls in place to effectively monitor the Municipal Wrecker Service contract. SAPD has established a contract administration plan and conducts an annual performance review to evaluate contract compliance. Also, the SAPD has effective procedures in place to ensure revenue payments are supported, fees charged are correct, and payments from URVMS are accurately supported.
However, we identified an area in need of improvement. While SAPD is conducting the bi-annual vehicle inspections, the vehicle inspection process is not sufficiently documented.
We recommend the Chief of Police implement procedures to improve tow truck inspection quality by collecting all required checklist information and ensuring all data is complete and accurate.
SAPD Management agreed with the recommendations and developed positive action plans.