Performance Audit: Managing and Monitoring the State Schools’ Transport Service

Charles Deguara, Auditor General today presented to Hon. Anglu Farrugia, Speaker of the House of Representatives the National Audit Office (NAO) report entitled ‘Managing and Monitoring the State Schools’ Transport Service’. The service (provided free of charge by Goverment to end users) audited through this exercise is supplied through five outsourcing service agreements and managed by the Education Logistics and Support Unit (ELSU) within the Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE). In view of the social importance of the service in question, together with its financial materiality (which runs at a cost of approximately €6.1million per annum), NAO carried out a performance audit to assess whether the contracts currently in vigore and MEDE’s monitoring function adequately safeguard Government’s and, by implication, the taxpayer’s interests.

Through this audit, NAO found that, after a somewhat troublesome but short settling down period at the start of each scholastic year, the State school transportation service generally satisfies end user expectations. This Office however notes that despite this result, it could not conclusively certify that the value for the funds invested in this service is being fully achieved.

Specifically, this Office noted that the manner by which the contracts governing the school transportation service are written projects a sense of excessive leniency towards the suppliers, leaving Government in a weak position when it comes to regulating the service and penalising low performance. This audit also found that the monthly reports compiled by schools (which present an account on the suppliers’ performance for the corresponding period) are not always comprehensive in what they account for, thereby leaving ELSU with reduced visibility on actually occurring defaulting incidents. This issue takes particular importance when one considers that these reports are the primary source of data upon which payments for the service in question and applicable penalties are calculated. NAO additionally observed instances in which documented evidence clearly identifying that routes have been performed, was lacking. Notably, this Office found discrepancies between what was included in the schools’ monthly performance reports, and the respective reported payments in the corresponding statements of account prepared by MEDE. While this Office acknowledges that this does not necessarily imply that, in such instances, paid trips have not been performed, it nonetheless asserts that such a situation heavily impinges on the payment process’s completeness and transparency. NAO further noted that the way the Geographical Information Tracking System made available by suppliers operates, renders it cumbersome and therefore nearly impossible for the Ministry to use in a proactive manner.

These issues, along with others, are comprehensively presented in the audit report in caption together with a number of recommendations.