Overview
In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority for the period October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2021.
We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer; the conclusion we reached regarding each objective; and, if applicable, where each objective is discussed in the audit findings.
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Objective |
Conclusion |
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Yes |
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No; see Finding 1 |
To achieve our audit objectives, we gained an understanding of SRTA’s internal control environment related to the objectives by reviewing SRTA’s applicable policies and procedures and interviewing SRTA employees and management. We evaluated the design of controls over the ADA‑required paratransit system operations and ADA paratransit complaint process. We performed the following procedures to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to address the audit objectives.
On-Time Performance for ADA-Required Paratransit Services
To determine whether SRTA provided ADA-required paratransit services on time to its riders, we analyzed 100% of the 127,877 trips that took place during the audit period. To determine whether there were any late trips during the audit period, we calculated the number of minutes between the actual pickup time and the scheduled pickup time for each of the 127,877 trips and found that there were 3,764 (2.9%) late trips that occurred during the audit period. To determine whether SRTA met its performance standards during the audit period, we compared the actual on-time performance rate (97.1%) to the performance standard in SRTA’s memorandum of understanding with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (90% for fiscal year 2020 and 95% for fiscal year 2021). SRTA exceeded these performance standards during the audit period.
ADA Paratransit Complaints
To determine whether SRTA investigated, resolved, and responded to ADA paratransit complaints within five business days upon receipt of a complaint, we tested all 57 ADA paratransit complaints that were submitted during the audit period. We examined each complaint in SRTA’s complaint management system and calculated the number of days it took SRTA to resolve the complaint by comparing the date that SRTA received the complaint to the date it was recorded as resolved. We also reviewed the resolution field, which includes documentation about the investigation, to determine whether SRTA responded to the complainant.
Data Reliability Assessment
Transit Scheduling and Dispatching System
To determine the reliability of the ADA-required paratransit trip data from the transit scheduling and dispatching system, we interviewed SRTA and South Coast Transit Management, Inc. officials who were knowledgeable about the data. We tested selected information system controls (i.e., access controls, security management, configuration management, contingency planning, and segregation of duties). We also tested the transit scheduling and dispatching system’s application control over trip scheduling to determine whether a rider who is not on the ADA-required paratransit rider list could schedule an ADA-required paratransit trip. We verified that the data did not contain any duplicate records or dates outside of the audit period. We verified that the data set contained necessary data fields (e.g., booking identification number, rider code number, driver, date of trip, scheduled time, actual arrival time, and requested drop-off time).
To assess the completeness of the ADA-required paratransit trip data, we traced a judgmental sample of 20 ADA-required paratransit trips from the transit scheduling and dispatching system data to hard copies of drivers’ manifest sheets, which are lists of all trips that drivers take. We traced a random sample of 20 hard copies of drivers’ manifest sheets to the list of ADA-required paratransit riders that was provided to us by SRTA’s ADA coordinator to verify the accuracy of the transit scheduling and dispatching system. We also compared all ADA-required paratransit riders’ identification numbers in the transit scheduling and dispatching system trip data to the list of riders eligible for ADA-required paratransit, which was provided to us by SRTA’s ADA coordinator.
Complaint Management System
To determine the reliability of the ADA paratransit complaint data from SRTA’s complaint management system, we interviewed SRTA and South Coast Transit Management, Inc. officials who were knowledgeable about SRTA’s complaint management system data. We tested selected information system controls (i.e., access controls, security management, configuration management, contingency planning, and segregation of duties). We also verified the accuracy of the complaint data by testing the data for records that were missing, duplicate, or outside the audit period. We performed a gap test of sequential case identification numbers, which are automatically assigned by SRTA’s complaint management system, and followed up on instances of inconsistencies in the numbering to verify that there were no deleted ADA paratransit complaints. We traced any vehicle numbers that were referenced in the 57 ADA paratransit complaints to SRTA’s van fleet schedule, which serves as a paratransit vehicle list, to determine whether the referenced vehicles were ADA‑required paratransit vehicles.
Based on the results of our data reliability procedures detailed above, we determined that the information obtained for our audit period was sufficiently reliable for the purpose of our audit.
| Date published: | August 30, 2023 |
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