Georgia lawmakers question Atlanta audit of MARTA's $85 million debt
Georgia lawmakers are questioning the accuracy of an audit of MARTA that led to allegations of overcharging the City of Atlanta tens of millions of dollars.
The latest look at the More MARTA Atlanta audit by state lawmakers presented a drastically lower debt than what City of Atlanta officials claimed was due.
In August 2024, the City of Atlanta accused MARTA of overcharging them for the More MARTA program to the tune of about $70 million.
The accusations followed an audit performed by Mauldin & Jenkins at the request of the Atlanta Mayor's Office.
That assessment found that over the five years of the More MARTA Atlanta program, bus services had been enhanced at a 'significantly lower' level than what was budgeted, while the transport agency continued to transfer funds from the city reserve to pay for capital programs.
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MARTA strongly disagreed, saying that they had transferred leftover funds back to the City of Atlanta when they were there, and that the audit by Mauldin & Jenkins was flawed.
Now, a joint committee of Georgia state lawmakers from both the Senate and House of Representatives are questioning the Atlanta audit and saying that a new assessment of the program and the impacts of service changes during the COVID-19 pandemic had presented a 'more realistic and equitable approach' to the transit system and its debts in Atlanta.
'As we review the findings of KPMG, it's evident that the threshold methodology, while initially suitable, did not adequately account for service changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and led to misleading conclusions,' state Rep. Deborah Silcox said in a statement.
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Atlanta officials push back on MARTA claims of flawed audit, Rep. Silcox asks more details
Atlanta accuses MARTA of overcharging $70 million over 5 years. Agency says audit 'flawed'
Atlanta city leaders demanding complete financial audit of More MARTA
Silcox chairs the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Overview Committee.
'The proportional methodology offers a more realistic and equitable approach by considering the shared nature of our transit system and spreading costs across all routes,' she added.
As far as a more realistic calculation, the new assessment by KPMG 'was determined to provide a more accurate cost allocation.'
So far, MARTA has paid Atlanta about $20 million from the debt highlighted by the city.
Silcox's statement also said 'under the threshold method, approximately $82 million was calculated as owed by MARTA to the City of Atlanta, while the proportional method suggested this amount was instead approximately $865,000.'
In a statement to Channel 2 Action News, a MARTA spokesperson said 'KPMG's independent audit of the More MARTA Atlanta Program, which found that among other things MARTA's enhanced bus service calculations from 2017 to 2019 were correct, disproving the City of Atlanta and Mauldin & Jenkins' previous erroneous calculations.'
Referring to two back-and-forths between the City of Atlanta and MARTA, the transit agency said that with the findings of the MARTOC assessment, and an accusation that Atlanta officials had ignored their responses during the Mauldin & Jenkins audit, MARTA urged faster approval of permits for new construction projects.
In particular, MARTA said they want to take this opportunity to urge Atlanta officials to 'expedite the approval of permits for the Five Points Station Transformation Project so that we can begin deconstruction. Because of the delays, it is already behind schedule, and it is critical that we begin work to deliver this transformational project for our riders, our system, and the downtown area.'
MARTA's spokesperson said they hope to work with the City of Atlanta to deliver a safe, clean and reliable experience for their customers.
Responding to a request by Channel 2 Action News, Atlanta officials said they were reviewing the new information.
'We received the document, and it is currently under review by our Finance team. We will provide further details once the review is complete. We stand by our initial audit and look forward to working with MARTA on the remaining $60 million dollars owed to Atlanta taxpayers,' a spokesman for the city said.
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