Misuse of Transit Subsidies Found

By: fedweek

GAO in an audit of the federal employee transit subsidy program in the Washington, D.C. area found significant abuse of the program, estimating that about a quarter of the value of those subsidies was misused. The subsidy program, which is designed to encourage employees to use public transit in their commuting, provides fare tickets of up to $110 a month. Auditors found instances of: employees overstating how much they spent on transit; employees claiming transit reimbursements when they actually drove to work themselves, including some instances in which employees received parking subsidies for parking at their office buildings; employees selling the fare tickets in person or online; employees failing to return unused tickets on separation as required; and agencies paying subsidies to people who were not even their employees. For a closer look, go to fedweek.com/HotFreeNews in the hot free info section of our website.