State Auditor Shadrack White issued the following statement and report.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) is operating at a level comparable to other state transportation departments across the nation, but they could save millions of dollars by streamlining operations. This finding, along with the ways MDOT could save taxpayer money, is published in a study of MDOT released by State Auditor Shad White today.
“My hope is that the new MDOT leadership will be able to use this report to make MDOT as efficient as it can be for the taxpayers,” said White. “The quality of our roads and bridges is important to Mississippi families, so we need to maximize the impact of every dollar we spend.”
The State Auditor’s office was given the responsibility to oversee a performance audit of MDOT as part of the infrastructure legislation passed during the 2018 special session of the Mississippi Legislature. After a formal competitive bidding process, the Auditor’s office selected a team of national experts from the firm HKA in Philadelphia, PA, to lead the audit.
“The Auditor’s office brought in national experts who had done studies on departments of transportation around the country for this project,” said White. “Working with those experts, we found MDOT is meeting many industry standards and best practices. But in any agency with a billion dollar budget, there will be ways to save money.”
The performance audit identified the following areas, among others, as ways to save money:
Eliminating under-utilized vehicles could save $13 million.
- Not replacing under-utilized commuting vehicles could save $895,000.
- Eliminating unnecessary staff in fleet maintenance could save $600,000 annually.
- Eliminating under-utilized rest areas and managing project schedules better.
The consulting firm also suggested MDOT might be able to save by recruiting more vendors to participate in project bids, because a lack of competition in the bidding process has been proven to increase MDOT project costs.
The audit revealed several functions the department of transportation already does well. Consultant engineers are regularly monitored, and MDOT ensures they deliver the products they are hired to produce. Additionally, the GPS tracking system the department uses in each of its vehicles likely saves the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel costs and other vehicle costs.
The entire report can be found online at the Auditor’s website.
19 comments:
In other news water is wet. You should see the fiasco between MDOT and Hemphill going on at Spillway & Old Fannin. No one has been on sight since November 27th. It was a 100 Project that began May 12th of 19. It's a mess. They are blaming MDOT and their regulations such as in February MDOT will only pay you for working 5 days. No incentive for Hemphill to show up more than 5 days in February since they will not get paid by MDOT. Not sure how true this is but Daniel Cross explained(or side stepped) the issue last night on the reservoir watch fb page.
In 2005, Barbour proposed a fleet management program for all state agencies - eliminating the ability of each agency, department, bureau, etc purchasing their own vehicles - and eliminating the multiple maintenance shops operated by DPS, MDOT, and others.
But - of course - the House under the leadership of Speaker McCoy bristled and blocked any such move, largely at the behest of Butch Brown (ED of MDOT at the time) because they didn't want to give up their control.
At the same time, while MDOT was begging for more money for engineers and other staff, there were 20 new cars hidden on the top floor of the MDOT parking garage that sat in the same place for over nine months. They purchased them with that wonderful end-of-the-fiscal-year money, those 'spend it or lose it' dollars that Administrative Officers please their bosses with by purchasing goods whether they are needed at the time or not.
Go get them Shad - this is a good start. Now lets see if we can get any results out of this legislatively mandated audit, from LG Reeves' infrastructure funding bill. (I imagine Dilbert will try to kill any changes, since it originated under Tater's reign.)
MDOT can not even manage and upkeep our roads and bridges, how can we expect them to manage themselves?
For the last six years, nothing mattered at MDOT except Dick Hall getting a desk in the building. Now the Albatross is gone.
@2:26
Contrary to popular belief, MDOT isn't responsible for every road and bridge in the state. There is a distinctly marked line between STATE, COUNTY, and CITY maintenance. Most highest concentration of neglected roads and bridges belong to Hinds County and the City of Jackson.
Have not read the full report yet, but some of quick observations.
1. Shad White continues to impress. It would have been easy to do a more political report on MDOT and play up what they did wrong to try and score points. Instead, he got a real firm to do a real report showing the agency does some things well and could improve on others. This is going to disappoint several folks on this blog.
2. MDOT seems to be managing its budget pretty well (and no, I am not an MDOT employee or even a state worker). $13 million is possible savings is, what, 1.3 percent of a billion dollar budget? And our spending seems to be in line with other states.
3. Several people seem to be hung up on the fact that MDOT has a billion dollar budget. Folks, this is 2020 and not 1970 (which seems to be a magical year for many of the chronic complainers). Building and maintaining roads costs a lot of money.
I might change my mind on some things after reading the report, but overall good job by White...and MDOT.
Government agencies ARE the major employer in the state. Everyone knows, or should know, that streamlining, efficiency, performance, etc. is not the real goal. The real goal is keeping people employed and keeping your friends, family and donors in the money.
This is one of the main reasons that those who pay taxes hate to do so. So much money is wasted.
On the scheme of a billion dollar budget, possibly wasting roughly 14.5 million seems they are relatively doing a wonderful job. Yes that’s a good chunk of change but that’s not even 2%.
They can save money by not simply moving a lane over by a foot, or not resurfacing a perfectly good road or just leaving shit that’s working alone instead of trying to spend every single last penny of taxpayer dollars so they get their budget again next quarter.
This is ok news but I’m waiting on Shad to take down the Big Daddy of them all...Dept of Revenue. Talk about a swamp and corruption. No accountability and their employees are allowed to make threats, insults and dare you to do anything because some of them are married to or are related to law enforcement so they can intimidate and threaten you and get away with it. But Shad can’t step on that slippery slope. He will be targeted by them and his own from within who are married to employees of the DOR. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Even the auditors office law enforcement arm had two member to plant evidence....oh my...
6:46
Do tell about the planting of evidence??
Why does Shad White think it is his job to manage every agency. He is reminding me so much of Mabus as auditor.
Department of Transportation employees, engineers in particular are under paid. Raise the gas tax to help with roads and bridges. Keep it up and MS will end up with no one to work as this agency has problems with recruitment because of pay. You can’t let Contracts without Engineers to over see. Meaning the Engineer must have a PE license & be bonded if signing off on contracts. Great agency!
"Why does Shad White think it is his job to manage every agency. He is reminding me so much of Mabus as auditor."
Because NOBODY from the Governor on down is trustworthy enough to even care about how the money is spent. White is a Godsend, but if he doesn't truly go after the whales in Mississippi (i.e. DOR, DOE) then he will merely be another in a long line of Mississippians just chasing higher office each election without truly making any difference in the long run.
We need Shad White to audit and investigate the City of Jackson. So much is going on with this administration under the radar.
https://www.wapt.com/article/jackson-city-council-formally-reprimands-chief-administrative-officer/30770968
@6:46
You might want to check with your doctors about you medications. Otherwise, can I join your conspiracy club? I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether Bush did 9/11.
@11:44
The MDOT audit was mandated by the Legislature, so take that up with them.
I have a story about DOT and its other hand. In a state I lived in long ago, the DOT brain trust decided to purchase cameras and mount them in the back of DOT panted Suburban's, take a pic of the front tag and send you a speeding ticket. A simple plan to share revenue with the Highway Patrol. Remember this was long time ago the camera's were so big it took up then entire back of the Suburban. They are collecting money from all over the state, after all who slows down for the DOT.
Then one day (less one year later) the brain trust got wind of something brewing at the statehouse. Yep that brain trust just voted to remove the front tag from cars.
The rest of the story: the reason for removing the front tag, surely one tag will cost less than two and we can save the voters money. Care to guess how that worked out..........
I’m the 6:46 poster. It was reported on here a while back. I’ll go into the archives and find it. Might take a while. But I’ll find it.
Report seems kind of boring. Why did the legislature want this study? Could it be that Tater Tot and do nothing legislators were looking for a reason to take over MDOT’s billion dollar budget that they can’t touch? It’s got to really bother Tot that there is a billion dollars of government that he can’t F up
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