Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority's use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds

This is a Massachusetts State Auditor review of how the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority used federal Recovery Act money from July 1, 2009 through September 30, 2011.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the Massachusetts General Laws, we have conducted an audit of certain activities of MVRTA for the period July 1, 2009 through September 30, 2011.”

The state was checking whether public agencies properly received, spent, tracked, and reported federal stimulus funds.

“This audit was conducted as part of the Office of the State Auditor’s ongoing efforts to audit the receipt, administration, and disbursement of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds by state entities.”

The audit matters because MVRTA receives public money and passenger fares, and weak farebox controls can make it harder to know whether bus fare revenue is accurate.

“The chief sources of funding for Authority operations are passenger fares, operating subsidies from the Commonwealth and federal government, and assessments to member municipalities.”

If you live in or use transit in the Merrimack Valley, this report is about whether money for local bus service, facilities, equipment, maintenance, and operations was handled correctly.

“The MA-96 grant has been used for renovations and additions at the MVRTA Haverhill office and maintenance facility, construction of a bus terminal transit center in Amesbury, acquisition of security equipment, operating assistance, and preventive maintenance.”

The main unresolved issue was fareboxes: older automated fareboxes did not always match the cash actually collected, so MVRTA needed continued testing and repairs until replacement.

“Until MVRTA can replace all of its bus fareboxes, it should continue routine testing of all bus fareboxes to monitor their effectiveness and repair fareboxes as necessary.”

MVRTA said the new fareboxes were installed in January 2012 and that it would keep auditing the equipment for accuracy.

“This auditing process will continue throughout the lifetime of the equipment.”

The finding was not that all spending was improper; it was that a prior problem with farebox accuracy was only partly resolved during the audit period, though replacement was underway.

“Our follow-up review determined that MVRTA took the initial steps to replace all of its 50 fareboxes with new units.”

ARRA means federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; FTA means the Federal Transit Administration; fareboxes are the machines on buses that record and collect fares.

“The ARRA grants, totaling $7,922,927, were awarded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) within the U.S. Department of Transportation.”