LEETSDALE — Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor on Thursday joined members of the Leetsdale Volunteer Fire Relief Association (VFRA), State Sen. Devlin Robinson and State Rep. Val Gaydos to announce the department’s Limited Procedure Engagement (LPE) Pilot Program has saved two months of staff time to complete these audits, from an average of 119 days down to 58 days.

“For the last six months, our audit teams have been piloting the use of LPEs in fire relief association audits to see if we can be more effective and efficient in our practices,” DeFoor said. “The answer is a resounding yes. By focusing the department’s resources on areas of greater need, we’re giving the taxpayers who pay for our services more bang for the buck. Using LPEs allows our team to shift resources to those VFRAs who need more in-depth reviews.”

The Lafayette Township VFRA in McKean County was part of the pilot program.

During the program, a designated team within the Bureau of Fire Relief Audits conducted a series of 32 audits from August 2023 to February 2024 using LPEs. By doing so, the bureau saved an average of 61 days per audit. These new procedures also significantly helped reduce the average number of days auditors spent conducting field work, from 45 days to 25 days, representatives said.

“Since 2021, we have been transforming and modernizing our department through technology upgrades and investments in our workforce,” DeFoor said. “We selected the Leetsdale VFRA to be part of this pilot because the leaders here have worked hard to follow the guidelines, had audits with no findings and when there have been findings, have successfully corrected the issues.”

There were 32 VFRAs included in the pilot program. To qualify as part of the pilot, the VFRAs had to meet a series of criteria that assess the level of risk of findings. VFRAs were selected by the audit team. The department is also piloting LPEs in two other bureaus, County Audits and Municipal Pension Audits.