It’s been a year since the Cash for Clunkers program where people received incentives to trade in gas guzzlers for new vehicles. According to the Orange County Register, the Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation recently discovered that many vehicles were not destroyed as required by the program. Officials visited 22 disposal facilities and found that seven of them did not report the final destruction of the clunkers. “For example, one facility, which received 357 CARS vehicles at the time of our audit, was not aware of (the reporting system) and therefore, had not reported any information on the status of those vehicles,” the report says, according to the OC Register. “The other facilities did not report … either at the time of receipt or after the vehicles had been crushed or shredded. In addition, one facility we visited did not sign or date the disposal certification forms for the 27 trade-in vehicles it handled. Without signed and dated forms, NHTSA cannot determine facility complied with the requirement to crush or shred the vehicles within 270 days of taking possession.”

Officials received tips that about two dozen cars that were supposed to be destroyed were actually shipped overseas. According to the report, most of the dealerships were reimbursed for their incentives, however nearly $4 million had been returned by dealers to federal officials. Nearly 20,000 dealerships participated and 678,400 new cars were sold as a result of the program. “While the primary focus of NHTSA’s initial activities was necessarily on the front end program transactions, NHTSA has transitioned its focus to ensuring that vehicles are disposed of in compliance with program requirements,” the report says according to the OC Register. “NHTSA is conducting outreach and program compliance activities intended to ensure that CARS trade-in vehicles are disposed of in a manner in full compliance with program requirements….”

According to USA Today ten dealers received violations. The first two cited were Prothro Chevrolet of Manning, South Carolina and Gary Wood Chrysler of Aurora, Missouri. Both were forced to pay $21,000 in fines. “I feel like they prosecuted me because they could,” Wood told USA Today. Wood sold 14 cars through the program, according to NHTSA records, but says he was reported by a fired salesman for keeping a used pickup for more than three months after it was to be destroyed. “If you get run over by the train for standing on the tracks, is it the train’s fault? Not necessarily.”

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