MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A new report further details the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s financial mess.
The city of Memphis has finally turned over the results of a financial audit paid for with your tax money. They released it just days after WREG Investigators pushed back when the city tried to withhold the results.
For the past year, WREG Investigators have dug deeper into MATA’s $60-million budget shortfall. We revealed your tax dollars were spent on a suite at FedExForum, new offices in a downtown high rise for executives, and hundreds of thousands on office furniture to fill it.
We uncovered MATA’s executive credit card statements that noted questionable charges for jewelry, a designer pen, catering, spa treatments, and more.
The travel expense reports we found revealed hundreds of thousands more of your taxpayer dollars were spent by the former MATA CEO to travel across the globe.
The city paid PricewaterhouseCoopers $600,000 last fall to conduct an audit. Six months later, a final report was handed over. It detailed much of what we’ve found, plus more.
The report emphasized that MATA was unable to provide detailed receipts for 92 of 209 charges associated with the cards. They also couldn’t provide a business purpose or context for 142 of the 209 charges.
They also outlined six pages of what they called “elevated risk transactions.”
One of those transactions includes a $25,000 contract with a communications firm paid by MATA. Some of the money apparently went to help the former Interim CEO with her “campaign and presentation efforts for a July 2024 interview” to get the permanent CEO gig.
Plus, MATA spent another $9,600 on a consulting firm to “solely” help her prepare for that interview.
The report went on to state MATA used grants in 2023 to purchase 25 13-foot shelters and 30 9-foot shelters. At the time of ordering, MATA had fewer than five bus shelters in its existing inventory.
At the end of April, Mata’s records showed 42 shelters remained in inventory, but a recent physical inventory count showed a different total. 21 13-foot shelters and 38 9-foot shelters were found in inventory, collecting dust.
The report noted, “There are risks associated with receiving federal, state, and local grant reimbursement for the purchase of items, such as these, that were not in use nearly two years later.”
The report also stressed other issues with grants like federal, state, and local funding being “co-mingled,” which means MATA could be combining or mixing funds, and that is “complicating compliance with funding requirements and hindering transparent financial reporting.”
The report also noted several times, there’s a lack of controls and oversight.
We do want to point out, federal grant recipients must follow strict standards. If an agency doesn’t abide, it could mean costs aren’t reimbursed, funds have to be repaid, or more audits.
The report had two pages of recommendations for MATA moving forward. Take a closer look at those recommendations and what else the audit found below: