Colorado MOST Program: Audit Finds "Serious Problems"
originally posted October 5, 2011
By Tim Anderson
An audit of Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) Program by the Office of the State Auditor released September 26, 2011, shows the motorcyclist-funded program to have significant problems. The audit calls for wide-ranging corrections to the program, or an outright shutdown of the program.
MOST was designed to provide financial reimbursement for students to take rider education courses in order to make them more affordable in an effort to increase rider safety.
According to the audit report, problems reach into how the MOST Program is managed, how reimbursements are handled, and how the program’s effectiveness is measured. The audit even questions whether the program is needed any longer.
The MOST program began in 1990, and is funded by a $4 annual fee added to each motorcycle registration in Colorado, as well as a $2 fee added to every motorcycle endorsement added to a Colorado driver’s license and subsequent renewals. The registration fee was raised from $2 in 1997, and the endorsement fee was increased from $1 in 2006. The mission of the program, according to the 1990 act that created it, is to “develop the knowledge, attitudes, habits, and skills necessary for the safe operation of a motorcycle.” Program regulations further explain the aim of the program as providing funds “so that Motorcycle Safety training would be more accessible to a greater percentage of Colorado consumers and would be less costly to consumers, thereby enabling more persons to enroll in and complete such safety training.”
Most Program expenditures, including tuition subsidies and administrative expenses, averaged about $690,000 annually in the last five fiscal years.
Additionally, MOST is supposed to administer a motorcycle safety and awareness program.
The audit came as a result of suggestion—or urging—by State Representative Marsha Looper during debate over Senate Bill 40 during the 2010 legislative session. The bill, which was opposed by much of the motorcycling community, was ultimately killed in a House committee, but the audit, which is a separate process, went forward.
The recently completed audit is the first the MOST Program has undergone since the program’s inception.
“We agree with what the audit identified as problems,” sad Glenn Davis, who as Manager of Impaired Driving Programs for the Colorado Department of Transportation over sees the MOST Program. “ When we were asked about an audit during the Senate Bill 40 debate, I said that I thought it was about time we took a good look at the program. MOST is a program where state government and private operations are working together, and finding ways to be more efficient and effective has to be something we look at. The audit points out some areas we can do better in, and if doing better is the end result, then it was worth the time.”
Davis said he believed the MOST Program should continue, despite the audit questioning whether it is needed.
“MOST still trains 9000 motorcyclists a year,” Davis said. “I think the program is important. It’s up to us to see that the students get the benefits they should from the program”
Wiz, Vice President of the Colorado Confederation of Clubs and Colorado Commander of the US Defenders, also thinks the MOST Program has value and should be saved, but perhaps not under its current management scheme.
“What the audit did was serve notice that the concerns we already had about the program in the US Defenders were correct,” Wiz said. The audit is an indictment of the program. There is significant data to support the idea that MOST has perhaps been mismanaged, or at least not watched over very closely.”
The auditor’s report is 54 pages long, and highlights several “trouble” areas.
One is the question of whether MOST is even needed. The report surmises, “No strong evidence exists to suggest that the MOST program is still needed to fulfill its original purpose of making motorcycle safety training more affordable and accessible. For example, motorcycle safety training is widely available in the state, and it is not clear that the MOST program’s subsidy provides an incentive for taking motorcycle safety training courses.”
Two, is the question of performance. “The MOST program lacks meaningful performance measures to gauge the program’s effectiveness, and the performance data collected by the program are insufficient and unreliable.”
As far as money distributed to riding schools, “The MOST program could not provide evidence showing the basis for the contract amounts awarded to MOST contractors. Program staff do not perform any systematic analysis to determine the per-student tuition subsidy rate, currently at $70 for the basic course. One-third of the 15 MOST contractors did not appear to pass along the $70 per-student tuition subsidy to their students, as required by MOST contracts.”
Another area of concern was, “For 29 of 60 expense reimbursements reviewed, the MOST program reimbursed contractors for items that had not been preapproved, as required by program regulations and contracts. There were also examples in which the MOST program reimbursed some, but not all, contractors for certain types of expenses, such as classroom equipment,” according to the report.
Finally, the report suggests, “It may be more cost-effective and equitable to provide tuition subsidies directly to students, rather than through MOST contractors.”
Wiz said US Defenders has two goals for the MOST Program.
“First, we want to ensure the survival of the MOST Program in Colorado,” he said. “Second, in that process we want to see that fees paid by motorcyclists are used to subsidize the training programs…we’d like to see the reimbursements going directly to the students. The audit shows that a third of the schools don’t pass that refund on to students. That’s a lot of money being sucked up each year by the schools.”
Davis said while the reimbursements are not currently given to the students—they are made to the training contractors, who are in turn supposed to pass on the savings to students—it may be time to start doing so.
“It may be time to start sending refunds directly to students,” Davis said. “Right now the student doesn’t get the refund. Contractors are supposed to adjust their prices to reflect the MOST reimbursement. We can’t check on all of those—there are over 9000 students a year. We don’t have the time to catch everything. We trust the contractors to do it, as their contracts require. I’d like to survey students about their experience, including whether or not they received the benefit of the reimbursement.”
As for the call for tighter controls on expense reimbursements to contractors and what that process is, Wiz suggested the process needs to be revamped and made more equitable and transparent.
Right now, some items and contractors are reimbursed,” Wiz said, “and others items and sometimes contractors are denied with no explanation. That has to stop. The rules need to be clear and evenly enforced. It doesn’t appear that they are right now.”
Davis explained that all schools are able to apply for reimbursement for items outlined in their contracts.
“Some contractors do a better job of filling out their applications for reimbursement than others,” Davis said. “Sometimes that’s all it is.”
Davis did not address the awarding of reimbursements for items not allowed under the contracts other than to say there is a list of allowed items, and that other applications are reviewed individually.
“We sometimes make a judgment call,” he said, but that’s something that clearly needs to be corrected.”
Davis said it is realistic that a revamped MOST Program rider education program could be ready to implement at the start of the new fiscal year, July 2012, when the new riding schools contracts will go into effect.
“We’d like to see the program overseen by a committee of appointed stakeholders—a broad cross-section of motorcyclists from across the state,” Wiz said. “We’re not sure leaving it under the supervision of a CDOT manager without the time to properly administer the program is the way to go. But, we clearly think MOST needs to be in place…it just needs to be run better.”
Because of the depth and complexity of this issue, Scooter News will print a more in depth analysis of this matter in the November 2011 issue. Scooter News will also keep abreast of further developments and pass them along. The entire State Auditor’s Report is available online at www.scooternews.net.
