Members of MARTA’s Board of Directors said Thursday they’re disappointed with the city’s audit into the Atlanta transit expansion program and support a state legislator’s request for a second group of auditors to investigate.
The audit, conducted by a firm hired by the city of Atlanta and released Monday, found the transit agency could have overcharged for enhanced transit services in Atlanta by as much as $70 million. MARTA Board Chairwoman Kathryn Powers said she has questions about how the auditors reached that total, a concern MARTA staff have also raised.
“It was certainly disappointing, I know for MARTA leadership and for me personally as the chair, that those concerns were not included in the audit,” Powers said.
Powers said she supports the recommendation by State Rep. Deborah Silcox, the chairwoman of the state legislative committee overseeing MARTA, for MARTA to hire its own auditors.
Other board members said they agreed with Powers and Silcox’s recommendation.
“If there’s something that needs to be corrected, I want it corrected. I think we all do,” Board Member Freda Hardage said. “But some things with the way it’s handled we all agree it’s questionable.”
Board members also said it was frustrating that MARTA’s response to the auditors wasn’t included in the final report.
Powers said there’s no evidence MARTA acted improperly.
“There’s no mention of malfeasance, there’s no allegation of any of that,” she said.
In a letter to MARTA’s Board of Directors Wednesday State Rep. Deborah Silcox said the agency should seek another review because of “potentially significant miscalculations” made by auditors for the firm hired by the city to look at the “More MARTA” program.
Silcox said it was troubling that MARTA’s response to the audit was not included in the final report. The audit was initiated at the request of Atlanta City Council members who have balked at the amount of money MARTA spent on operating expenses instead of capital projects.
“This omission raises concerns about the impartiality and thoroughness of the audit process, as such a review should consider all relevant information and responses,” Silcox wrote in the letter.
MARTA contested the figure when the city released the audit earlier this week, saying the audit firm’s calculations were wrong.
Silcox suggested MARTA hire KPMG to conduct the second audit. The firm is already working on a broad audit into MARTA’s operations, something that’s required annually by state law.
In an interview, Silcox said more information would serve as an additional assurance to taxpayers. MARTA and city officials agree on some of the findings from Mauldin & Jenkins, the firm hired by the city last year, but there is significant disagreement on other conclusions — particularly the $70 million figure.
“I just want to get another professional opinion on the whole situation,” she said.
A mayor’s office spokesman issued a statement saying the audit speaks for itself.
“The ... scope and parameters were agreed upon by both parties after protracted pushback by MARTA,” the statement says. “However, Mayor Dickens ... looks forward to engaging with MARTA leadership to execute all recommendations with urgency for the good of Atlantans and the entire region.”
A half-penny sales tax funds More MARTA, which was intended as a way to pay for $2.7 billion Atlanta-specific transit expansion projects. There were 17 projects on the original list, ranging from heavy and light rail to enhanced bus services.
City officials began questioning the breakdown of operations and capital spending in 2022 after the agency revealed it had spent more than half of the sales tax proceeds at the time on enhanced bus services and other operational costs. A plan approved in 2018 called for MARTA to spend $238 million on enhanced bus services over the 40-year life of the sales tax, but the agency spent $181.2 million within the first four years. That left council members concerned that capital projects would be shortchanged.
The More MARTA operational spending is only meant to enhance services within Atlanta — it is not meant to replace the agency’s overall operating budget that funds services across the entire system, which is what critics have alleged happened.
In its audit, Mauldin & Jenkins reviewed More MARTA operational spending going back to program’s start in 2017. Spending is currently calculated using a formula that looks at how much extra services are provided in Atlanta compared to what was offered before the start of More MARTA. Mauldin & Jenkins said the agency provided no documentation to show how it calculated charges from FY17 through FY19. In lieu of that, they used the current formula and concluded that MARTA had overcharged by as much as $70.3 million.
MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood said in a letter to the auditors that it was a mistake to apply the current formula to all years. The formula was designed to account for scaled-back service during the pandemic and doesn’t translate to service provided before the start of the pandemic, he said.
Greenwood said MARTA is willing to work with city officials to determine an appropriate cost formula and would repay any overcharges it determines.
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