OP-ED: Was there abuse of federal dollars to pay fraudulent MTA overtime?

The Federal Transit Administration provides $1.4 billion in annual grant funding to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Some of these funds are used to reimburse New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railroad for annual track maintenance. A significant portion of these funds pay for Force Account. They are the employees who perform the actual work. 

One wonders if the MTA charged these fraudulent hours against any open active Federal Transit Administration grants. If true, the MTA might be required to pay back FTA for charging illegal reimbursement expenses. 

In October 2019, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General Ms. Carolyn Pokorny issued a devastating report dealing with excessive overtime and lack of proper time keeping for agency employees. One year later, many of the promised reforms have yet to be fully implemented, despite previous commitments and promises by MTA and Long Island Rail Road management. Now we have this new scandal. 

Some overtime expenses may be legitimate due the unexpected impacts of COVID-19. There is a difference between overtime necessary due to malfunctioning equipment, accidents or adverse weather conditions when attempting to restore service versus others. 

In 2016, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted that the MTA Office of Capital Construction with the support of NYC Transit complete the $4.5 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 1 by the end of the year. He wanted to be able to host a planned ribbon cutting ceremony on Jan. 1, 2017. After the event, it was shocking to learn that both contractors and NYC Transit paid employees millions in overtime for acceleration of work to meet his demands. (Source: New York Times "The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth" -- December 28, 2017).    

It appears that today, there is still significant overtime abuse and out of control pensions. These cost the MTA over a $1 billion annually.  

It doesn't help the MTA make a good case for Washington to deliver a second $12 billion COVID-19 bailout when it can't efficiently manage its own financial resources. Every dollar counts, be it generated by riders paying at the farebox, city, state or federal assistance paid for by taxpayers dollars.

---------------------

Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, MTA Bus, NYC DOT, NJ Transit, along with 30 other transit agencies in New York and New Jersey.