WMATA vs. The Examiner
WMATA issued a strongly worded response today to an Examiner editorial that the agency said falsely accuses Metro employees of being involved in the farecard scam that resulted in the arrests of six individuals on Friday. Here's what the Examiner editorial board wrote:
Metro personnel in the police, technology and financial offices — who are supposed to be monitoring such transactions — may have been involved, since counterfeiting magnetized farecards is a bit more complicated than just printing up a batch on a color copier at Kinko’s. Catoe hinted that the counterfeiters may have had access to the same kind of software used to read legitimate farecards, since they knew how to trick the machines into accepting the fakes. Metro employees and vendors would be the most likely to have access to such privileged information.WMATA's response, which denies that any Metro employees are implicated in the farecard scam, includes statements like "Shame on The Examiner!" and "In the future, the newspaper should stick to the facts." The full letter is below the jump.
The editorial in today’s Washington Examiner about last week’s theft scam against Metro is full of inaccuracies. The worst of them is the accusation that Metro employees are responsible for a counterfeit-farecard scam when the editorial made the claim that the case "strongly suggests an inside job." Shame on The Examiner!Metro General Manager John Catoe and Transit Police Chief Michael
Taborn specifically told reporters at a press conference Friday, July
18, that there was no evidence to suggest that employees were involved.
Yesterday, editorial writer Barbara Hollingsworth called Metro and asked
one question: Were employees involved? She was specifically told that
"there is absolutely no evidence" of employee involvement.So far, six people have been arrested by Transit Police. None of them
are Metro employees.For The Examiner to make speculative allegations that Metro employees
were involved demonstrates the highest level of irresponsibility on the
part of the newspaper’s editors. Where is their evidence to be making
such accusations? There is none. Indeed, the paper’s reporter who
covered the story reported the facts. But that didn’t stop the paper’s editors from taking its cheap
shots.Should the police investigation determine that Metro employees were
involved, we'll make that public, just as we informed the public that a
scheme existed in the first place. But at this point, there is no
evidence to suggest employees had anything to do with it. Mr. Catoe did
not "hint that the counterfeiters may have had access to the same kind
of software used to read legitimate farecards" as the paper falsely
claimed. He said that other transit agencies around the country might
be at risk of the same type of scheme because they use similar farecard
machines, and he took the responsible step of alerting transit agencies
of the scam. It has always been the practice for Metro to encourage
customers to buy from legitimate vendors. The paper’s statement that
"Catoe’s predecessor was forced out after it was reported that Metro
parking lot attendants had pocketed more than $1 million," is also
wrong. A 2003 audit of the parking lot theft found $29,738 in lost
revenue at four stations over 48 days. The report speculated that there
could have possibly been as high as $500,000 to $1 million annually if
the theft was system-wide. However, there was no evidence of that.
Richard White stepped down as general manager of Metro almost two years
after the parking lot theft became public. His departure was not
related to the parking lot thefts.The editorial also alleged that Mr. Catoe’s decision not to attend a
national transportation leadership conference and instead remain in town
to oversee and develop action steps to respond to the discovery of the
counterfeit scheme implied that the problem "may be a lot more
extensive." The paper instead should have applauded Mr. Catoe’s
decision to remain in town and demonstrate strong leadership. Surely had
he decided to take his trip the paper would have ridiculed him for being
absent.In the future, the newspaper should stick to the facts. Metro officials
discovered a counterfeit farecard scam. They wasted no time and arrested
six people within days of discovering the fraud, developing strong
action steps and holding a press conference to let the public know about
the situation. Those are the facts. They are outlined on Metro’s web
site, including John Catoe’s comments from the news conference.