Reports: Audit Finds MARTA Owes Expansion Program $70MM; MARTA Disputes Findings

According to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the audit found that MARTA “charged for more service than it provided” in the first six years of More MARTA, as the expansion program is dubbed. According to an Atlanta News First report, the agency “often dipped into that pool of money for daily operations.”

Mauldin & Jenkins, an accounting and financial services firm, made 10 recommendations for MARTA, including better record keeping, which the agency says it has “already begun implementing,” according to the Atlanta News First report.

Of the $70 million, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, MARTA has previously acknowledged unspecified “errors” that led to a $9.9 million overcharge in 2022 and agreed to repayment. There’s disagreement over the rest, however.

“MARTA said it has already adjusted two years of additional overstatements totaling $10.6 million, but the auditors could not find documentation proving the money was paid back. There is even less documentation surrounding the remaining $44.1 million auditors believe MARTA overcharged from 2017 through 2019,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.

The transit agency, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, “wasn’t able to tell auditors how it calculated the costs those years, so auditors did their own calculations using MARTA’s current funding formula to arrive at the $44.1 million overcharge estimate.”

MARTA officials on Aug. 19 responded to the audit (download below), saying they disagreed with how Mauldin & Jenkins calculated the agency’s spending.

“Mauldin & Jenkins’ calculations are wrong. They used a flawed methodology by applying a COVID-based formula to reverse engineer what they believe should have been charged for bus service in 2017, 2018 and 2019, resulting in false calculations. MARTA charged for the cost of actual bus service during those years and the city officials then in charge were aware of the costs, as the minutes of monthly meetings prove,” the agency said in a statement.

According to the statement (download below), MARTA informed the City of Atlanta and Mauldin & Jenkins of their “flawed methodology” and said they are “disappointed” that the agency’s responses to the audit, which were provided to both parties, “were not included or referenced.”

Despite these errors, MARTA said it will “continue to work in good faith with the city to improve IGA and strengthen the overall success of the More MARTA Atlanta Program.”