April 26, 2007
Transit on Thursday: Waste, Fraud and Abuse Edition
Also this week: Metro parking goes high-tech and low-frustration.
Finally, brace yourself, Washington... The much ballyhooed Metro performers - songsters, dancers, and jugglers galore - are coming to a station near you! Make sure to let us know if you see one. If you can, get a quick picture, and let us know whether they were awful or, well, awful...
Photo by Cary Scott Photography
Consultant Reports the Obvious: Metro = Wasteful Bureaucracy
While people always talk about the inefficiency and waste inside Metro, hard data is not easy to come by. The numbers certainly indicate that financially, Metro is not doing so well. Officials have said they'll have to use between $5 and $10 million from cash reserves to balance the books this year, and next year, they're facing a much more troubling $116 million shortfall. However, a report on Metro's internal efficiency released today by a private consulting firm offered some clues to the problem. The report, contracted by Metro's general manager John Catoe to examine cost-saving opportunities soon after he was hired, described overstaffed administration and management departments, leading to duplication of job duties and an internal structure that is "out of alignment with priorities." The firm has recommended several steps Metro could take to balance their books. The two most substantial (and likely most controversial) changes are the elimination of 220 administrative jobs, and revamping an overtime system that costs Metro millions each year.
The two problems are related. Metro has too many employees in administrative positions, and too few running buses and trains. As a result, administrative HR budgets are bloated, while operations must pay out costly overtime to cover service responsibilities. The Examiner reported that Catoe promised to take control of the overtime issue at a Metro Board meeting yesterday, "We were not managing overtime properly. We have to get control of it.” If he doesn't, Congress has passed a provision to deal with the problem as part of Virginia Rep. Tom Davis' Metro funding bill. Catoe has expressed concerns about the legislation from a logistical standpoint, and D.C. Councilmember and Metro Board member Jim Graham has come out against it as "micro-management." Other measures recommended by the report include using money from Metro's capital budget to cover maintenance and allowing $12 million from unused farecards to count as revenue.
While changes to staff structure and overtime policies are important moves that will increase Metro's financial efficiency, they are not long-term solutions to lingering financial woes. Increasing ridership, demands for new service, and maintenance of aging infrastructure will require new revenue sources, including increased local and federal support, and, unfortunately, fare increases. Absent those, the next cost-savings measure at Metro might be the elimination of your bus route, downtown congestion charges, or any of those other silly ideas that Metro suggested a while back that are more likely to alienate more riders than save much cash.
...But Metro Riding Feds Are Wasteful AND Liars
Metro may be inefficient and wasteful, hopelessly mired in an entrenched bureaucratic system, but at least it isn't being purposefully fraudulent. A report issued Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office found that federal employees are illegally selling their MetroChecks, the free monthly transit benefit offered to government workers, bilking the federal government out of millions of dollars every year. Fraud in the Washington area alone adds up to at least $17 million a year. We've all seen them on eBay and Craigslist; people sell their MetroChecks - up to $105 a month - at less than face value and pocket a little free money.
It's hard to fault the folks that are engaging in this practice, though. The sole security mechanisms on MetroChecks are a few words on the back of the card indicating that they are not transferable, and a signed pledge by which workers promise to only use the cards to pay for transit commuting. It's more difficult to fake a video rental card in this security-obsessed town! Despite several colorful anecdotes, the article did not indicate whether those caught would be charged with anything. Hearings are planned in Congress, however, and workers should expect more oversight in the future.
Lack of Metro Parking Now Far More Apparent
Metro's numerous suburban parking garages have long been a source of tire-squealing frustration for area commuters. The lots fill up early, and Metro employees are not always so quick to put those "Lot Full" signs at the entrances. Often, drivers pass under the gate of no return only to find themselves without any hope of a space. This week, however, the Glenmont station debuted an automated parking alert system that tells drivers how many spots are available before entering the lot. The system is similar to the one used at BWI Airport lots, though it won't feature the lights inside the station that help guide divers to those precious empty spots. Instead, it will display parking availability on signs along Georgia Avenue and Norbeck Road, letting drivers know whether or not they'll be able to find a space. When the new Rockville station opens later this summer, it will also have a parking alert system, which will feature the fancy in-garage guidance. Unfortunately, this doesn't do much for errant employees who slept though their alarms, but at least they won't be out four bucks!
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Add "abuse of bus transfers" to your list.
The paper transfers are meant for two hours. Drivers typically let customers offloading pass them to onloading riders. Also riders merely need to flash the transfer which is not verified as valid by the driver. Drivers are often too behind schedule and want to avoid confrontation.
Dishonest riders are at fault, not WMATA so much.
This problem could be solved with mandatory use of smarttrip cards for those who want to transfer. Otherwise you pay the full fare. Monthly/student/senior passes would remain unchanged.
Tourist do not really use Metro buses and if they do they rarely transfer. Any one who rides the bus or has riden the bus can keep a smarttrip card in their wallet.
Additionally, greater incentives to use smartrip cards will cut down on the time riders spend fumbling with change and trying to unwrinkle bills. Plus the driver will spend less time tearing off the transfer to give to riders. There's no wonder jurisdictions like New York use plastic magnetic-strip cards for transfers.
And let's not mention the trees saved and elimination of the contract to bring 365 different paper transfers for each day of the year.
"It's hard to fault the folks that are engaging in this practice, though. The sole security mechanisms on MetroChecks are a few words on the back of the card indicating that they are not transferable, and a signed pledge by which workers promise to only use the cards to pay for transit commuting."
Totally. Like, one time I was in this building that had a lot of food in it, and I was totally hungry, so I just picked up a few apples and walked out. Turns out this "Supermarket" had this small sign tucked away saying something about prosecuting shop lifters. Wtf? How can I be expected to see that?
But seriously, a lot of these workers are not just the relatively innocent worker that has a couple of extra bucks on his cards. A lot of them didn't even work there anymore. Some never worked there!
But how about the Examiner patting itself on its back on that overtime article? Jesus, that article should have been titled "Congress cuts pensions, bends to Examiner's will"
What the previous commenter said. It's ridiculous to say that lax enforcement excuses criminal activity on the part of Metrochek recipients. The numerous forms you fill out to apply for the program make it quite clear that reselling them is illegal. No one who buys black-market MetroCheks on Craigslist is kidding themselves otherwise, I'm sure.
Even if agencies do not discipline the Metro Check abusers, the IRS will! Metro Checks converted to private use becomes income and taxable. So expect a nice audit in your future plus penalties plus interest.....sucks to break the law.
I see ONE mime when I get out the Metro, there's gonna be trouble. I don't care if I have to fill the whole go***mn station with hot brass. Y'all need to keep your pastyfaced-Marcel-Marceau-man-in-a-box asses off the Blue and Orange Lines. Straight up.
my mother signed me up for a smartrip just before sending me off to college.
for some god-known reason, wmata registered it in her name instead of mine and now they won't allow me to change my address, get smartbenefits, or should i ever need it - a replacement card.
HOWEVER, metro will totally accept my credit card to put money onto "her" smartrip.
since metrotrips just as non-transferable as metrocheks, it appears that we are in on a mother-daughter metro scam
"The program will not affect artists who already appear outside stops, although they might want to find another Metro venue if there is a conflict, Richards [DCCAH employee Lisa Richards] said."
Is this for real? It won't affect established buskers, just push them off their long-time pitches? Betting on the resulting fights might be the most entertaining thing about this program.
Miss Bee --
Why not just get a new one? You'd be out five bucks and would save yourself a lot of hassle.
GREAT PICTURE!!!
I love taking the bus around town. Metrorail's spiderweb design betrays the fact that it was built to ferry suburbanites into the federal enclave of the city. The bus is for D.C. residents. It's still the only way to get across town.
First commenter, you're absolutely right: WMATA should do away with paper transfers. It's an excellent and overdue idea.
The GAO only found out just now that people have been selling their metrochecks?? I have been working for the fed. government for 2 years and I thought it was common knowledge that people were doing this unchecked for a while now. It's definitely illegal, they make you sign a form that says it's illegal to sell them. But I've never once heard of anyone getting busted for it so of course people are going to sell the things.
Anyways, just some minimal enforcement of that would probably at least scare a bunch of people, so I hope they do something. It makes the rest of us look stupid when people take advantage of such a great program like that.
Bobby,
I don't know how Metro is betraying the fact, I think it is quite obvious to everyone on its purpose.
christine - because i HAVE one, right here. and i can put my metrocheks onto it, but it won't let me do smartbenefits. and if i ever need smartrip support, i just have to give them my mother's name. (hence the mother-daughter scam, they'll never that i'm not actually her on the phone)
and why should i pay five dollars for something that i already have?
I wish that they'd install turnstiles on busses...starting on the 50s series and going east, there's usually 1 to 2 people every ride who manage to get on the bus without paying by asking the driver for change or just throwing some change in and pretending not to have enough money. Drivers can't eject riders and they often start driving before the fare is paid. If its a mild annoyance on 14th street, I can't imagine how many people are riding free the further east you get. And repeatedly see turnstile jumpers in Gallery Place and other metro stops. I'm sure it's not the most serious source of lost revenue, but its lost revenue nonetheless.
#10
I work in the private sector for a large company. Similar transit voucher programs exist in other places (NY, PA, NJ that I know of). For us, taking the Metrocheck benefit (much less reselling), while at the same time *parking in the on-site garage* is a violation of our corporate code of conduct. I don't know of specific local instances, but I do know that within the company, people have been dismissed for this. We get a quarterly security newsletter, which is a fun read because it lists all the illegal and stupid things people did that got them fired.
What a waste of time and money:
Issues that will completely vanish when this finally happens:
-employee time picking up and adding value with the damn things
-fraud
-employer time distributing the damn things
-WMATA time printing and distributing the damn things
-GAO time writing "duh" reports
-Congressional hearing time on chump change. How about fixing the issue of missing/wasted/misappropriated $ in Iraq, which wastes over 1200 TIMES AS MUCH MONEY as fucking Metrocheks? (20.4 BILLION vs 17 million.) No, let's send them running after idjits on Craigslist.
The conversion to Smartbenefits will not eliminate the problem. Since MARC, VRE, and some of the commuter bus lines don't accept SmartTrip cards, people who take, or claim to take, these services will still get paper Metrochecks to sell. The scam will continue.
Yeah, but MARC, VRE and the commuter bus lines that don't take SmartTrip cards also won't take Metrocheks. And they're far more likely to start taking SmartTrip cards than they are to start accepting paper Metrocheks, too ... the Montgomery County Ride-On buses already seem to have the equipment in place, but just haven't gotten the system working yet.
I'm not saying there won't still be fraud somehow, that shit's hard to stamp out for good, but it won't be because of any of the transit options you listed.
I am not sure how familiar you are with the program, but right now, everyone gets 1 of 2 options, either a paper Metrocheck or money automatically put on the SmartTrip card. If you ride MARC or VRE or a bus line that does not take either of these, then you have to trade in your Metrochecks for the appropriate tickets. MARC riders for example can do this at the ticket windows at Union Station. Metrochecks can also be used like regular Metro fare cards, which makes them valuable on the resale market.
Once the mandatory conversion to SmartTrip is completed, people who ride on non-SmartTrip compliant systems (MARC, etc) will still be able to get Metrochecks, which will still be able to be used to ride Metro.
There are two possible solutions to this. First, you could require VRE, MARC etc to take SmartTrip cards. This is unlikely. Federal regulations require that heavy rail commuter lines have a certain number of train crewman, which the systems use to collect tickets. Short of outfitting those guys with handheld SmartTrip readers (and expensive idea) there will always be the need for some sort of paper ticket. In addition, many of the commuter bus lines are contracted out to private companies which would not support having to convert to the SmartTrip system and which often use the busses for other purposes when not in commuter service.
The better option is to eliminate the Metrocheck altogether and instead create a new paper coupon that would never, under no circumstances, be valid on Metro. Thus the only market for resale would be the relatively low number of MARC, VRE, and commuter bus riders. But since WMATA is a major part of the program (along with US DOT) I don't see them doing this.
The resale scam is by no means limited to Craigslist and Ebay. I have seen these things sold right outside the door of the office where they are distributed in my agency. I also know of employees who rely on these second hand cards to provide transportation on Metro fro their non-federal employee spouse.
Not sure if anyone's still reading this topic, but just in a case, I have a question -- how does the reselling of metrocards affect metro's revenues? The card being sold was paid for at some point, right? So isn't this the equivalent of selling/buying a cd at a used cd store?
People forget about one negative thing about Smart Benefits. It costs a lot more money (on the order of
$500/year) to use a Smart Trip card and pay by the ride as opposed to purchasing a Ride-On and Metro Weekly paper unlimited ride pass. I'm all for using Smart Trip as a pass. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to pay the extra money so Metro can have extra convenience.