Audit Shows Opportunities to Improve Bus Safety

An audit, led by North Dakota State Auditor Josh Gallion, shows the North Dakota Highway Patrol did not follow internal policies for school bus inspections, during a time period from July 2016 through June 2018.

The audit also showed that the North Dakota Highway Patrol was inaccurately tracking the inspections, and was not working off a complete list of vehicles to be inspected. The report, released Thursday, also looked at federal grant dollars spent by the agency and found errors in how the dollars were expensed. If the proper procedures were used, the State would have an additional $41,895 in the general fund.

Gallion’s report says the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction advertises 100% of district owned school buses are inspected. State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler responded by saying the Department of Public Instruction does not “advertise that inspections are done on 100 percent of school buses,” as Gallion claimed in a press release about the audit report. The NDDPI’s guidance manual for school districts and bus drivers asks that they have their school buses inspected annually by the Highway Patrol.