Fiscal Year Audit Complete for Transit Agency
Maher Duessel Certified Public Accountants Brian McCall and Katie Yates presented the audit to Town and Country Transit municipal board directors Wednesday.
by Jonathan Weaver
Maher Duessel Certified Public Accountants have completed and submitted financial audits to the government on behalf of Town and Country Transit in Kittanning.
Principal Brian McCall and Manager Katie Yates praised the transit group for improving during the past five years, but acknowledged the “challenging” atmosphere across the public transit sector.
The firm – which has offices in Pittsburgh, Butler and Harrisburg – issued compliance reports and also reviewed internal controls and checks and balances because of the federal funding support Town and Country Transit receives.
“The auditors are here to report their findings, but our findings are that there were no findings,” McCall said.
“Both from a financial statement standpoint and from a compliance standpoint on the federal side, there were no findings. You continue to trend in the right direction as far as the challenges that you and every other transit agency are facing.”
McCall “didn’t have any significant adjustments” since auditors were working with figures directly from General Manager Patti Lynn Baker and Finance Manager Lisa Midla.
“(Baker) and (Midla) put a lot of work into getting those numbers ready – we’re just here to audit them,” McCall said. “So, we issue a report basically that says we were able to obtain reasonable assurance over those numbers and they were materially-accurate.”
According to the report, Town and Country Transit’s total assets, liabilities, operating revenues and expenses all increased between fiscal years 2014 and 2015.
For example, while assets increased to more than $1.5 million, expenses eclipsed $1.76 million.
During the fiscal year, Town and Country Transit used more than $81,000 in Act 44 funds to supplement Shared-Ride operations, meaning the agency has used more than $1.7 million to subsidize the program since 2007.
But, the new Ecolane scheduling software has increased efficiency, system reliability and customer satisfaction.
Both Fixed-Route and Shared-Ride ridership increased between July 2014 and June 2015.
McCall praised the organization for “really coming a long way” by paying off debt to third-party agencies, even though Town and Country Transit still has negative equity.
A $200,000 line of credit established in August 2008 and converted into a demand note was paid in full during the year as well as the promissory note to pay an outstanding line of credit and payables.
More recently, both fixed-route and shared-ride trip numbers increased in December.
More than 3,400 residents took rides on the fixed-route buses in December – an increase over November’s statistic – while more than 2,800 passengers were picked up for shared-ride trips – an increase of nearly 150 passengers from November.
Local News | jweaver January 25, 2016
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