Auditor General DePasquale Pledges to Build on Savings Realized through Internal Cost-Cutting, Provide High-Quality Audits
Auditor General DePasquale Pledges to Build on Savings Realized through Internal Cost-Cutting, Provide High-Quality Audits
$2 million annual savings from internal cuts since 2013, including state car fleet reduction of 90 percent
HARRISBURG (Dec. 10, 2015) – Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today pledged to continue ensuring that state money is spent legally and properly by building upon his department’s accomplishments in significantly reducing internal operational costs and producing high-quality audits that can yield recommendations for substantial savings in state and local governments.
“We continue to focus on providing useful, high-quality audits, while at the same time holding the line on operating costs for travel and transportation, real estate leases, records management, parking, and other internal expenses,” DePasquale said in a message to members of the General Assembly this week.
“These are real internal savings. For example, since 2013 we cut the number of our state cars by 90 percent and reduced travel expenses, saving taxpayers more than $800,000 annually.”
Since January 2013 the department’s cost-cutting has generated savings of $2 million annually:
• $830,645 by cutting the fleet of state-owned vehicles by 90 percent, going from 241 cars in 2013 to just 31 in December 2015, and reducing other travel and transportation costs;
• $694,000 by migrating the department’s human resources, purchasing and financial operations to the Commonwealth’s SAP system;
• $400,000 by eliminating much of the department’s leased office space and parking leases; and
• $164,000 by shifting the department’s printing operations to other existing commonwealth printing resources.
DePasquale noted that in addition to internal cost reductions, during the past audit year (Feb. 1, 2014 through Jan. 31, 2015), his department identified in excess of $42.5 million in potential state savings through school, liquid fuels, corporate tax, volunteer firefighter relief association, and special performance audits.
DePasquale also noted that his department recently successfully passed a rigorous external peer review by representatives of the National State Auditors Association (NSAA), receiving the highest level of audit quality assurance an external peer review team can award.
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