Metropolitan Transportation Authority

MTA Bus Company and New York City Transit: Selected Aspects of Vehicle Fuel Procurement and Use

The MTA Bus Company (MTA Bus) and New York City Transit (Transit) are constituent agencies of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). MTA Bus provides bus service on Long Island and certain parts of New York City, while Transit provides bus and subway service throughout the City. We examined MTA Bus’s and Transit’s controls over the procurement of diesel fuel for their buses, and found that they paid significantly higher prices than were necessary for this diesel fuel. Between October 2006 and September 2009, we estimated that MTA Bus paid $7.6 million more than it should have paid, and Transit paid $31.8 million more than it should have paid. The two agencies paid more than they should have paid primarily because their fuel procurement contract was for a more costly type of diesel fuel rather than its less costly and more common counterpart.

We also examined MTA Bus’s controls over fuel deliveries and use, and found that, because of significant weaknesses in these controls, MTA Bus had no assurance it was getting the quantity and quality of fuel it paid for, and no assurance the fuel was used for business purposes only. For example, daily fuel use records were not always maintained and reconciled to ensure that the amount of fuel that was pumped out of the tanks agreed with the amount that was pumped into authorized vehicles, and we identified a number of instances in which the records showed that more fuel was pumped out of the tanks than was pumped into authorized vehicles. We recommended that a number of improvements be made in the controls over fuel procurement and accountability.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-S-175 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.