2016-03-17
National Audit Office assesses effectiveness of school bus services
The National Audit Office of Lithuania completed an audit of programmes providing yellow school buses for municipal schools. The purpose of the audit was to evaluate whether programme objectives had been reached and whether student transportation by bus was organised effectively.
The programmes for providing schools with yellow school buses were launched in 2000 and have been implemented to this day by the Ministry of Education and Science. Our public auditors have concluded that the ministry has failed to allocate the intended funding for the acquisition of school buses and purchase the planned number of yellow buses for 2000–2014. What is more, during the audit period (2012–2014), yellow school buses were not always assigned based on essential distribution criteria. These underlying problems have resulted in failure to reach programme objectives.
The intended impact of the programmes for providing schools with yellow school buses was also achieved only in part because municipal authorities do not always organise school bus services efficiently.
Having assessed the data collected during the audit, the National Audit Office has issued recommendations to the Ministry of Education and Science. If the recommendations are acted upon adequately, the provision of yellow school buses will be organised with more careful consideration of municipal demand for such services, quantitative data on how student transportation is organised will be analysed systematically, and a regulated procedure establishing requirements for the management and execution of safe school bus services will be prepared.