The Nebraska State Auditor’s Office in the State Capitol. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — The state auditor, acting on a tip, found that the personal business of a supervisor in the Nebraska Department of Transportation on four occasions was paid state funds to tow a department-owned vehicle.
State Auditor Mike Foley (Courtesy Nebraska State Auditor’s Office)
Auditor Mike Foley said the transactions, amounting to nearly $1,000, came despite the department having its own tow trucks.
“It’s a troubling situation where a person is in a position where he can directly order towing services to a company that he owns when in fact the department itself has sufficient towing resources,” he said. “You can not use your position to enhance your own personal financial gain.”
Insufficient records
Foley’s team, in an 11-page report, offered four invoices between April 2024 and July 2025 showing that state purchase cards were used to pay a Wahoo-based business owned by Loren Cuda, the department’s highway fleet shop supervisor.
In three of those instances, the auditor team said, a card was used by a subordinate of Cuda. Foley alleges that Cuda was directing others to steer business to his company. Cuda could not immediately be reached Monday for comment.
Foley said that while transportation employees generally receive verbal approval by a supervisor before making a purchase, such discussion and approval typically is not documented. As a result, the report said, the auditor team was unable to verify whether the towing purchases in question were properly pre-authorized.
The audit team’s report, addressed to Transportation Director Vicki Kramer, said invoices for the four tows lacked sufficient information to verify whether mileage, towing services and additional fee charges were “reasonable.”
Vicki Kramer, director of Nebraska Department of Transportation. (Courtesy of State of Nebraska)
Foley said the situation poses concern of a possible violation of the Nebraska Political Accountability and Disclosure Act, which intends to ensure “that public office or employment not be used for private gain other than the compensation provided by law.”
Foley forwarded the team’s findings and information to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission for further review. Violators can be subject to misdemeanor charges.
Transportation response
The report included a response from leadership of the Transportation Department. The reply noted that Nebraska law does allow, in certain situations, for state agencies to buy goods or services from a vendor associated with a state employee. The department response acknowledged, however, that department procedures “may not be sufficient to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
As a remedy, the department said it has suspended future purchases from the vendor in question. It said the department is reviewing its processes to determine whether there are additional controls that could “enable purchasing from vendors associated with state employees” while avoiding any actual or apparent conflicts of interest.
The department, through a spokesperson, declined further comment.
Foley said that while transactions with a state employee’s personal business may be legal in certain circumstances, “it wasn’t necessary in this case.” He said he wants to convey a message to state employees and agencies: “We’re watching.”
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