Office of the MTA Inspector General

Last updated
Office of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General
Agency overview
Formed1983;40 years ago (1983)
Jurisdiction Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Headquarters One Penn Plaza, Manhattan
40°45′5″N73°59′35″W / 40.75139°N 73.99306°W / 40.75139; -73.99306
Agency executive
  • Daniel Cort, Inspector General
Parent Public benefit corporation Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Key document
  • New York State Public Authorities Law §1279 [1]
Website mtaig.state.ny.us

The Office of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Inspector General (OIG) is the Office of Inspector General specific to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that is responsible for conducting monitoring and oversight of MTA activities, programs, and employees.

Contents

OIG provides oversight and monitors the activities of the MTA in order to ensure a safe, reliable, clean, and affordable public transportation system in the New York metropolitan area. Through its investigations, audits, legal work, and other studies, the OIG works to help the MTA improve its performance and to enhance the quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of its agencies' operations and substantiate allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse. [2]

Organization

Audits

The OIG Audit Division conducts in-depth audits and reviews of a wide variety of policy initiatives, program operations, and service-related activities of MTA agencies. OIG audits assess whether MTA operations are safe, accessible, and efficient, and make recommendations for improvement as appropriate. [3] [4] The OIG Audit Division regularly consults with the MTA Auditor General and other audit and investigative units throughout federal, state, and local New York government. [5]

The OIG Investigations Division receives and investigates complaints from within and outside the MTA concerning alleged fraud and other criminality, waste, and abuse. The division's priorities are the detection and deterrence of fraud, the protection of MTA assets, and assuring the safety of MTA ridership. Where appropriate, matters are referred to relevant law enforcement and other governmental officials on the federal, state, and local levels for further investigation and/or for criminal or civil prosecution, in which OIG routinely participates. [6] [7]

Tips & Complaints

Like all Offices of Inspector General, [8] MTA OIG audits and investigations are frequently generated from tips and complaints received from various sources including MTA riders, workers, and third parties. [9] [10] In 2019, the OIG received the largest amount of complaints in the office's history. [11] [12]

History

In 1983, the New York State Legislature established the Office of the MTA Inspector General through Public Authorities Law 1279. [1] The MTA Inspector General is nominated by the New York State Governor and must be confirmed by the New York State Senate. [1] [13]

The agency's creation was requested by then-Governor Mario Cuomo. [14] The first MTA Inspector General was Sidney Schwartz. [15] In 2019, Carolyn Pokorny became the first female MTA Inspector General. [16]

List of MTA Inspectors General

MTA Inspectors General
MTA Inspector GeneralTenureNominated By
Sidney Schwartz1983 - 1985 Mario Cuomo
Sanford E. Russell1985 - 1988 Mario Cuomo
John S. Pritchard III [17] 1988 - 1992 Mario Cuomo
Henry B. Flinter [18] 1993 - 1995 George Pataki
Roland M. Malan [19] 1995 - 2000 George Pataki
Matthew D. Sansverie [20] 2000 - 2006 George Pataki
Barry Kluger [21] 2007 - 2019 Eliot Spitzer
Carolyn Pokorny [16] 2019 - 2021 Andrew Cuomo
Elizabeth Keating2022 - 2023Acting Inspector General
Daniel G. Cort [22] 2023 - Present Kathy Hochul

Statutory Authority

Public Authorities Law (PAL) §1279 authorizes and directs the MTA Inspector General to independently review the operations of the MTA and its constituent agencies: New York City Transit Authority, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, MTA Bridges and Tunnels, MTA Bus, and MTA Capital Construction. [1]

In terms of the scope of its statutory authority to perform this review, the OIG has “full and unrestricted access” to all “records, information, data, reports, plans, projections, contracts, memoranda, correspondence and any others materials” of the MTA (PAL §1279[3]). [1]

The Inspector General also has the following statutory functions, powers, and duties (PAL §1279[4]):

The Inspector General, who is an ex officio member of the New York State Public Transportation Safety Board (PTSB) with authority to vote on matters involving the operations of the MTA (as per Transportation Law §216[1]), is further authorized and directed to cooperate, consult, and coordinate with PTSB regarding any activity concerning the operation of the MTA.3 With respect to any accident on the facilities of the MTA, the primary responsibility for investigation belongs to PTSB, which is required to share its findings with the Inspector General (PAL §1279[5]). [23]

The OIG is required to make annual public reports to the governor and members of the legislature (PAL §1279[6]).

The Inspector General may request from any office or agency of the State of New York or any of its political subdivisions, such cooperation, assistance, services, and data as will enable him to carry out his functions, powers, and duties, and they are authorized and directed to comply (PAL §1279[7]).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metro-North Railroad</span> Commuter rail service in New York and Connecticut

Metro-North Railroad, trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Metro-North serves the New York Metropolitan Area, running service between New York City and its northern suburbs in New York and Connecticut, including Port Jervis, Spring Valley, Poughkeepsie, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, White Plains, Southeast and Wassaic in New York and Stamford, New Canaan, Danbury, Bridgeport, Waterbury, and New Haven in Connecticut. Metro-North also provides local rail service within the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 52,197,600, or about 211,000 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Transit Authority</span> Bus and subway service operator

The New York City Transit Authority is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in North America, the NYCTA has a daily ridership of 8 million trips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</span> Public transportation organization in New York

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in the United States, serving 12 counties in Downstate New York, along with two counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, carrying over 11 million passengers on an average weekday systemwide, and over 850,000 vehicles on its seven toll bridges and two tunnels per weekday.

The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), doing business as MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates seven toll bridges and two tunnels in New York City. In terms of traffic volume, it is the largest bridge and tunnel toll agency in the United States, serving more than a million people each day and generating more than $1.9 billion in toll revenue annually as of 2017. As of 2018, its budget was $596 million, funded through taxes and fees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge</span> Bridge in Queens, New York

The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge is a toll bridge that carries Cross Bay Boulevard across Jamaica Bay in Queens, New York City, between Broad Channel and the Rockaway Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L (New York City Subway service)</span> New York City Subway service

The L 14th Street–Canarsie Local is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored medium gray since it serves the BMT Canarsie Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AirTrain JFK</span> People mover system at JFK Airport in New York City

AirTrain JFK is an 8.1-mile-long (13 km) elevated people mover system and airport rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The driverless system operates 24/7 and consists of three lines and nine stations within the New York City borough of Queens. It connects the airport's terminals with the New York City Subway in Howard Beach, Queens, and with the Long Island Rail Road and the subway in Jamaica, Queens. Alstom operates AirTrain JFK under contract to the airport's operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

In the United States, Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to many federal executive departments, independent federal agencies, as well as state and local governments. Each office includes an inspector general and employees charged with identifying, auditing, and investigating fraud, waste, abuse, embezzlement and mismanagement of any kind within the executive department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTA Capital Construction and Development Company</span> Projects subsidiary of New York Citys MTA

MTA Construction and Development Company is a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), formed in July 2003 as MTA Capital Construction Company to manage the MTA's major capital projects in the New York metropolitan area. It mainly focuses on improving transportation infrastructure and facilities in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island areas. Funding primarily comes from local, state, and national bond sales and budgets. In 2017 Janno Lieber became MTA Capital Construction president; in 2021 he was appointed Acting Chair of the MTA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congestion pricing in New York City</span> Traffic congestion fee in New York City

In New York City, a planned congestion pricing scheme will charge vehicles traveling into or within the central business district of Manhattan. First proposed in 2007, this disincentivizing fee to cut down on traffic congestion was approved and included in the 2019 New York State budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation</span>

The U.S.Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General is one of the Inspector General offices created by the Inspector General Act of 1978. The Inspector General for the Department of Transportation, like the Inspectors General of other federal departments and agencies, is charged with monitoring and auditing department programs to combat waste, fraud, and abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA Office of Inspector General</span>

The NASA Office of Inspector General is the inspector general office in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the space agency of the United States. The OIG's stated mission is to "prevent and detect crime, fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement and promote efficiency, effectiveness, and economy throughout NASA."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal law enforcement in the United States</span>

The federal government of the United States empowers a wide range of federal law enforcement agencies to maintain law and public order related to matters affecting the country as a whole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Defense Office of Inspector General</span> Government official

The Department of Defense Inspector General is an independent, objective agency that provides oversight related to the programs and operations of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DoD IG was created in 1982 as an amendment to the Inspector General Act of 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Lhota</span> American politician

Joseph J. Lhota is an American public servant and a former politician who served as the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and was also a former deputy mayor of New York City. He was the Republican nominee in an unsuccessful bid for the 2013 election for Mayor of New York City. In January 2014, he became senior vice president, vice dean, and chief of staff at NYU Langone Medical Center. In 2017, he returned to the chairmanship of the MTA, but would not run the authority day-to-day. He resigned from that position in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Byford</span> British public transportation executive

Andy Byford is a British transport executive who has held several management-level positions in transport authorities around the world, such as the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Transport for London (TfL) and Sydney's then RailCorp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AirTrain LaGuardia</span> Unbuilt people mover system at LaGuardia Airport in New York City

AirTrain LaGuardia was a proposed 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) people mover system and elevated railway in New York City, United States, that would provide service to LaGuardia Airport in Queens. It would have connected with the New York City Subway and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Willets Point, similar to how the existing AirTrain JFK system connects John F. Kennedy International Airport’s six terminals to the LIRR in southern Queens at Jamaica station and to the subway at both Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport station and Howard Beach-JFK Airport station; and how the existing AirTrain Newark station connects Newark Liberty International Airport’s three terminals to NJ Transit Rail Operations and Amtrak at a dedicated station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017–2021 New York City transit crisis</span>

In 2017, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) due to ongoing reliability and crowding problems with mass transit in New York City. This order applied particularly to the New York City Subway, which was the most severely affected by dilapidated infrastructure, causing overcrowding and delays. With many parts of the system approaching or exceeding 100 years of age, general deterioration could be seen in many subway stations. By 2017, only 65% of weekday trains reached their destinations on time, the lowest rate since a transit crisis in the 1970s. To a lesser extent, New York City buses operated by the MTA were also affected. Both the subway and the buses are run by the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), a subsidiary of the MTA. A separate crisis at Penn Station affected the routes of the three railroad agencies that provided service into the station. Media outlets deemed these crises "the summer of hell".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">14th Street Tunnel shutdown</span> Reconstruction of a New York City Subway tunnel

Carolyn Pokorny is a career federal prosecutor, currently serving as First Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Previously she served as the Inspector General for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority at the Office of the MTA Inspector General. She is the first woman to hold that position.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Metropolitan transportation authority inspector general". NY State Senate. 2020-02-15. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  2. ↑ "StackPath". www.masstransitmag.com. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  3. ↑ staff/jen-chung (2019-11-19). "MTA Inspector General: Brooklyn Borough Hall Ceiling Collapse Could Have Been Avoided". Gothamist. Archived from the original on 2019-11-20. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  4. ↑ "Shoddy Vetting Lets Convicts Get Jobs With MTA: Audit". New York City, NY Patch. 2019-12-04. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  5. ↑ "Cuomo calls for forensic audit of MTA capital plan". Newsday. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  6. ↑ "D.A. Vance, MTA I.G. Pokorny Announce Charges in Metro-North Railroad Bid-Rigging Scheme". Manhattan District Attorney's Office. 2020-01-17. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  7. ↑ "Queens District Attorney's office working with MTA's inspector general on overtime : Empire Center for Public Policy". www.empirecenter.org. 16 May 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  8. ↑ "Inspector General Complaints · GI Rights Hotline: Military Discharges and Military Counseling". girightshotline.org. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  9. ↑ "MTA's inspector general hits the rails running". Bond Buyer. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  10. ↑ "Opinion | WHEN AN M.T.A. USER LODGES A COMPLAINT". The New York Times. 1983-08-06. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  11. ↑ "MTA OIG Annual Report 2019" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ↑ Board, Post Editorial (2020-03-08). "The MTA needs to get serious about penalizing employee theft". New York Post. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  13. ↑ "Transportation Meeting". NY State Senate. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  14. ↑ Levine, Richard (1983-06-12). "The Region in Summary; Cuomo Salvages Something on His M.T.A. Plan". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  15. ↑ Gargan, Edward A. (1983-11-25). "'Watchdog' Over M.t.a. Stirs Worry". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  16. 1 2 "Governor Cuomo Announces Unanimous Confirmation of Carolyn Pokorny - Former Federal Prosecutor and Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch - as Inspector General at the MTA". Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. 2019-05-30. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  17. ↑ Ap (1987-12-15). "Ex-F.B.I. Agent Is Nominated As M.T.A. Inspector General". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  18. ↑ "L.I.R.R. Chief Won't Resign Under Pressure". The New York Times. 1994-04-16. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  19. ↑ Newman, Andy (1997-09-17). "Company Sues M.T.A., Saying It Was Denied Fair Chance to Vend Metrocards". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  20. ↑ Lambert, Bruce (2003-04-22). "M.T.A. Inspector General Defends His Record and Agency's". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  21. ↑ Slattery, Denis. "MTA Inspector General stepping down amid ongoing probes into alleged overtime abuses". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  22. ↑ "NYC investigation veteran Daniel Cort named MTA Inspector General". New York Daily News. 2023-06-16. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  23. ↑ "New York Consolidated Laws, Transportation Law - TRA § 216". Findlaw. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.