ATLANTA — On Monday, the Atlanta Mayor’s Office released the results of an audit of MARTA performed at their request by Maulding & Jenkins, focused on the operational performance of the transit agency and its use of funds for the More MARTA Atlanta program.
In an accompanying announcement shared Monday by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, the city said the audit found that MARTA had overcharged the city roughly $70 million over five years for the More MARTA Atlanta program.
The audit reported that spending on More MARTA Atlanta’s enhanced bus services were “significantly lower than budgeted amounts” in the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, adding that “in years when the More MARTA Atlanta program’s expenditures on operations exceeded budgeted amounts, MARTA transferred funds allocated for More MARTA Atlanta capital programs from the City of Atlanta Reserve account to MARTA’s Unified Reserve account to cover the difference.”
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Similarly, the audit said that in years where MARTA spent less than expected, the agency would transfer the leftover funds from the Unified Reserve account back to the City of Atlanta reserve.
In response to the audit of MARTA, the transit agency pushed back on the work of Mauldin & Jenkins.
“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. “MARTA informed the City and Mauldin & Jenkins of their flawed methodology and is disappointed that our responses to the audit which were provided to both parties were not included or referenced.”
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The auditor made the following recommendations related to the scope of their report, including:
- MARTA’s Technical Services team should evaluate options to track route-level Vehicle Revenue Miles (“VRM”) and Vehicle Revenue Hours (“VRH”)
- The City of Atlanta and MARTA should update their intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to better define responsibilities and roles in managing the More MARTA Atlanta program
- The City and MARTA should consider creating a less permanent governing agreement related to policies and procedures for items not needed in an IGA
- Atlanta and MARTA leaders should quickly consider a 2023 resequencing plan for the needs of the More MARTA Atlanta program
- Atlanta should try to improve communications within the city government and ensure documentation of communications with MARTA
- MARTA should revise its financial reporting template to show the full budgeted and actual operation program costs for More MARTA Atlanta
- Program leaders should avoid specific transit types while making program names and communications for capital projects
- Atlanta and MARTA should work on an agreed-upon method for calculating program costs
- Atlanta should verify that MARTA transfers $9.9 million from MARTA Unified Reserve to the City of Atlanta Reserve to make up for fiscal year 2022′s miscalculations
- MARTA and the City of Atlanta should work to resolve disagreements over funding and operating costs for fiscal years 2020 and 2021
- Atlanta and MARTA should discuss the “significant” differences between the original cost allocations from fiscal year 2017 to 2019 and the current cost allocation methodology
- Atlanta should consider creating positions for communication between the city and MARTA
- Atlanta and MARTA should establish a record retention policy for the More MARTA Atlanta program
- MARTA should work with the Georgia Dept. of Revenue to ensure better information for More MARTA Atlanta revenues and sales tax distributions
The mayor’s office said the City of Atlanta agrees with the recommendations made in the audit by Mauldin & Jenkins.
Continuing their response to the audit report and its recommendations, MARTA said that “despite these errors, MARTA will continue to work in good faith with the City to improve the IGA and strengthen the overall success of the More MARTA Atlanta Program.”
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