An IG review of the public transit subsidy program at the EPA has raised questions regarding at least $137,000 of the nearly $10 million the agency spent on that employee benefit in 2014.
In that year the maximum that agencies could pay employees—typically in the form of a transit pass—to use public transit in their commuting was $130 a month; the amount since has increased to $255 a month.
It found, for example, that 149 of the 431 EPA headquarters employees who left the agency that year continued to receive transit subsidy benefits and 46 continued to use EPA-paid transit cards.
Further, policies among the EPA regions regarding the benefit are inconsistent, with one having two plans with differing levels of review and another that purchased transit passes at a discount but that actually cost more than if the region had paid the actual incurred transit costs for only those employees qualifying for them.
The agency concurred with recommendations to address those issues.
