The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has disbanded Metro North Railroad”™s On-Board Services Unit following an audit that revealed repeated lapses in monitoring and employees who were no-shows.
The audit, performed by New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli”™s office, concluded that between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 20, 2011, the six-employee unit tasked with monitoring train conditions and crew performance frequently failed to complete assignments and was often off-task while at work.
“The public got taken for a ride,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “When workers in this unit did bother to show up for their jobs, they did shoddy work or personal tasks when they should have been ensuring that trains were operating safely and smoothly.”
The audit examined 300 rides that were expected to be taken and documented, of which 29 percent had no logs to support that any work was done. In 14 percent of the 300 rides, no On-Board Services employees were present.
Auditors and investigators also found that staffers were distracted while working, spending hours on various Internet sites.
Of the 211 rides reviewed by the Comptroller”™s office for which logs did exist, there were no significant performance or safety issues raised by On-Board Services employees.
The unit, which included five employees and one supervisor as of July, 2011, earned a total annual compensation of $832,676.
The audit also raised concerns that an assistant vice president who supervised the unit referred a relative to work under her supervision, despite the fact that the person in question received a lower rating than two other applicants for the position.
The relative who was hired was paid $84,700, whereas the position had a posted starting salary of $57,226.
The hiring was investigated by counsel for Metro North Railroad, with the railroad subsequently issuing three separate reprimands to the assistant vice president.
The matter was referred by the Comptroller”™s office to the Office of the MTA Inspector General (OIG) for further investigation. The MTA said it would cooperate fully with the OIG inquiry.
