Let's Talk Travel Audit!
Last week the State Auditor's Office released a report on school district travel practices. You can read more about it here from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, or here from the Spokesman-Review.
In the cover letter to the report Brian Sonntag goes on record as saying the auditors discovered $1.1 million dollars in five-year savings; on the next page, they share that the audit cost $777,564 to run, which lowers the savings to about $320,000. Not insignificant--that's enough to pay the salary and benefits for four teachers, after all--but also not much in the big scheme of things. If total travel across the state in the last three years adds up to $75 million (3/10 of 1% of the education budget), then the identified savings are only 1/75th of that amount. Again, all savings are good, but context matters as well; if the "waste" is such a small fraction of the whole, are we looking at the wrong spending problems?
Additionally, some of the conclusions that the auditors came up with are rather hard to support. Take applying the "Federal Lodging Limit" to the lodging that districts pay for when they attend conferences, for example. Apparently the Feds have a price and a multiplier that can be applied to any city to determine how much money you should pay to stay there, but the hotels that host these conferences (I'm looking at YOU, Sea-Tac Hilton!) often are some of the most expensive. If you don't stay at the host location you have to rent a car, which adds costs. In some cases the report faults districts for spending $19 a night more than the per diem rate, which seems kind of silly.
When you put it all together this particular criticism of the districts amounts to nearly $500,000, or half of the identified savings, and I'm not sure the charge really sticks. If people are staying in the penthouse, that's a problem. If they're doubling up in a room that's an extra $19 a night? Not so much.
Consider, too, the other big share of the recommendation: off-site retreats and meetings. Here the auditors identified $540,000 in five-year savings, but again there are problems:
litany of complaints responses from the audited school districts, where they raise several objections to the conclusions. As an example, the auditors said that school districts should use the state travel contract more; Spokane SD pointed out that Alaska/Horizon Air, the main carrier between Spokane and Seattle, doesn't honor the state rate for that trip. This is the state's fault for not negotiating it into their contract, and it's not something the district can correct unilaterally.
The total effect of the report is rather underwhelming. The initial press release hits you like a ton of bricks, especially the stories of waste they cite, but the foundation that their conclusions are based on doesn't really stand up to close scrutiny.
Read more here, if any.
In the cover letter to the report Brian Sonntag goes on record as saying the auditors discovered $1.1 million dollars in five-year savings; on the next page, they share that the audit cost $777,564 to run, which lowers the savings to about $320,000. Not insignificant--that's enough to pay the salary and benefits for four teachers, after all--but also not much in the big scheme of things. If total travel across the state in the last three years adds up to $75 million (3/10 of 1% of the education budget), then the identified savings are only 1/75th of that amount. Again, all savings are good, but context matters as well; if the "waste" is such a small fraction of the whole, are we looking at the wrong spending problems?
Additionally, some of the conclusions that the auditors came up with are rather hard to support. Take applying the "Federal Lodging Limit" to the lodging that districts pay for when they attend conferences, for example. Apparently the Feds have a price and a multiplier that can be applied to any city to determine how much money you should pay to stay there, but the hotels that host these conferences (I'm looking at YOU, Sea-Tac Hilton!) often are some of the most expensive. If you don't stay at the host location you have to rent a car, which adds costs. In some cases the report faults districts for spending $19 a night more than the per diem rate, which seems kind of silly.
When you put it all together this particular criticism of the districts amounts to nearly $500,000, or half of the identified savings, and I'm not sure the charge really sticks. If people are staying in the penthouse, that's a problem. If they're doubling up in a room that's an extra $19 a night? Not so much.
Consider, too, the other big share of the recommendation: off-site retreats and meetings. Here the auditors identified $540,000 in five-year savings, but again there are problems:
- The biggest share of those costs were incurred by the Clover Park School District. The auditors identified about $109,000 in questionable spending on retreats; $87,000 of that was from Clover Park alone.
- Similarly, it's that $109,000 figure that the auditors multiplied to get the $540,000 in savings, but if Clover Park is such a large share of the pie that throws the reality of the total savings way off kilter.
- A lot of the money we're talking about here isn't state money, it's Federal. All taxpayer money matters, sure, but I'd expect our state auditor to spend more time on state money.
The total effect of the report is rather underwhelming. The initial press release hits you like a ton of bricks, especially the stories of waste they cite, but the foundation that their conclusions are based on doesn't really stand up to close scrutiny.
Labels: audit, Brian Sonntag, budget, SAO, travel
Read more here, if any.
posted by Ryan at 11:16 AM
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