Report questions MTA spending
After a months-long investigation, a state watchdog agency has released a report scrutinizing some spending by the Maine Turnpike Authority.
The report from the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability overall found that the MTA borrowed money and invested in transportation responsibly. However, the report called into question a number of expenditures from 2005 to 2009, including $1.1 million for travel and meals, more than $250,000 for employee recognition items and events and more than $575,000 for lobbying services. OPEGA noted that meetings at "expensive restaurants...seem to occur with some frequency," and also found MTA's management team to be spending money on private limousine services, expensive hotel rooms and alcoholic beverages.
Last May, OPEGA launched an investigation into MTA's performance after finding it had not directed any surplus revenue to the state as required since the mid-1990s. OPEGA found that MTA has no operating surplus under the definition currently in place and will likely never generate surplus, unless statutory language is changed. OPEGA made a number of recommendations, including that state statutes clarify how MTA should transfer surplus funding to the Maine Department of Transportation, and that the state require more transparency in the authority's reporting of operating expenses.
Scott Tompkins, MTA's public relations manager, told MaineToday Media the authority has discontinued some practices highlighted by OPEGA and plans to continue making changes "toward fiscal responsibility and transparency." MTA has reduced its expenses on travel from $411,000 in 2005 to $132,441, a 67.8% reduction.
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