Unaccounted-for bus fares totaling $475,000 and inadequate bus maintenance plague the Maryland Transit Administration, according to a state audit released Tuesday.
The state has launched a criminal investigation of MTA employees for unauthorized access to bus fares collected from March to June 2007, according to a General Assembly audit that criticized MTA for not using surveillance cameras in its counting room to potentially nab others.
Recommended Stories
“It looks like a big money room where cash is very accessible, and no one was looking at the videos even on a test basis,” said Bruce Meyers, the legislature’s chief auditor.
“Is what they collect getting into the bank?”
The audit, which spanned August 2004 to October 2007, said MTA did not keep track of employees’ access to keys that open bus fare boxes.
One arrest was made in the attorney general’s ongoing criminal investigation, but authorities have yet to determine the full magnitude of the problem, said MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene.
“This audit really has forced us to take a closer look at our vulnerabilities, and we had to immediately implement some oversight mechanisms,” she said.
“The MTA realized that, in this climate, it is imperative we account for things.”
Camera footage in the fare collection processing room now is being monitored, and a new security system on fare box keys is in place, state Transportation Department Secretary John Porcari said in a written response to the audit.
New recording software has replaced the previous $21 million system on bus fare boxes, which Porcari said was unreliable.
The audit also said MTA failed to perform maintenance inspections — which include oil changes and tire rotations — as often as required by federal rules on nearly 70 percent of its fleet. Federal law requires the state to inspect at least 80 percent of its fleet every 3,300 miles to receive full federal funding.
The requirement has been met since mid-January, Porcari said, by retiring older buses and purchasing 30 new hybrid buses.
[email protected]
