Politics on the Hudson

   The Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs to improve its procedures for approving contracts, which have comprised up to 15 percent of the agency’s operating budget in recent years, and should elmininate some of the contracts for outside services, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in an audit released today. The contract total increased from $315 million in 2006 to $881 million last year, the audit found.

   DiNapoli’s office reviewed four years during which the MTA awarded thousands of contracts worth about $2.9 billion for services including engineering, architecture, waste management, consulting and information technology.

   The MTA initiated or completed consultant contracts valued at more than $4.5 billion between Jan. 1, 2005 and Oct. 16, 2008, the audit found. Contracts almost tripled in value between 2006 and the first 10 months of 2008, but the number of contracts fell 35 percent during that time. About 25 percent of all service contracts were non-competitive, the audit said.

     The MTA was unable to prove that the contracts awarded were always the most cost-effective option, the audit said. The authority doesn’t have a process for determining periodically whether the contracts are still necessary or if they should be suspended or reduced for fiscal reasons. The MTA contracted for services that potentially could be performed by its own staff, such as real-estate management, tree trimming and bus engine repair, the audit said.

   The audit comes at a time when the MTA has been under fire for financial mismanagement that required the Legislature to adopt a bailout for the authority several months ago. Senators asked a number of tough questions and aired their displeasure with the agency last week before approving Jay Walder as its new chairman and CEO. He will earn $350,000 a year.

   ”The MTA has raised fares and received more tax dollars to cover its deficits and debt,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “At the sae time, the MTA expanded its use of personal service contracts without a thorough evaluation of the need or cost-effectiveness of those contracts. Now more than ever, every dime counts, and the MTA needs to manage public resources more carefully.”