Auditor General DeFoor Releases Pittsburgh Regional Transit Performance Audit Which Highlights Improvements
Auditor General DeFoor Releases Pittsburgh Regional Transit Performance Audit Which Highlights Improvements
HARRISBURG – Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor today released a performance audit for Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) that showed the authority has corrected all the findings from the last audit and is on a path to improving service for the region.
“One thing became very clear to our auditors – PRT is aware of its future challenges and is using innovative solutions to face them head on,” Auditor General DeFoor said. “There are great things happening at PRT, and I want to congratulate leadership for finding ways to address Pittsburgh’s changing transit needs. Our auditors recommend PRT continues its work to restore ridership to pre-pandemic levels and focus on maintaining financial stability for the future.”
The audit’s objectives were to determine the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on PRT’s revenues and expenditures and evaluate PRT’s strategies and efforts to sustain operations through effective planning, developing policies and implementing procedures to meet its needs.
There were two findings:
- The COVID-19 pandemic had adverse impacts on operations, and unless ridership rebounds, PRT may face difficulty when its federal stimulus funds and deferred revenue are depleted; and
- PRT has implemented strategies to continue current operations, but future sustainability challenges remain because of evolving ridership trends.
To address these findings, the auditors’ recommendations focus on PRT’s need to increase ridership, maintain financial stability and continue recruitment and retention efforts. They also recommended PRT establish and document monitoring procedures for the strategic initiatives being implemented to serve as an early warning system for when changes need to be considered.
The Department of the Auditor General is legally required to audit PRT once every four years. This audit period covered July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022, all the findings from the last audit have been corrected and PRT accepted the findings and recommendations from this audit.
*EDITOR’s NOTE: Picture and video of the press conference can be found on pacast.com
To read the full audit, visit our website at www.paauditor.gov.
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