As New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli continues his ongoing series of MTA audits, he’s starting to get to the juicy bits. Late last week, DiNapoli released his examination of Metro-North’s now-defunct On-Board Services Unit and found that employees who were supposed to monitor train conditions and crew performances were not doing their jobs. The unit was rife with no-shows and poor job performance while one particularly egregious case of nepotism may have run afoul of the New York State Public Officers Law.

The audit, available here as a PDF, has already led to some changes. The MTA, accused of offering no oversight for the On-Board Services Unit, has since disbanded the team, and the matter has been referred to the Office of the Inspector General for further investigation. It’s possible that criminal charges could be filed.

“The public got taken for a ride,” DiNapoli said. “When workers in this unit did bother to show up for their jobs, they did shoddy work or personal tasks when they should have been ensuring that trains were operating safely and smoothly. The MTA needs to do more to tighten up accountability. I am pleased that this audit brought an end to this situation.”

What exactly did the audit find? DiNapoli’s office provided a summary:

The audit covered the period January 1, 2009 through June 20, 2011 and examined whether employees in Metro North’s On-Board Services Unit fulfilled their duties and performed their assigned tasks. As of July 2011, the unit consisted of a supervisor and five employees who earned a total annual compensation of $832,676. Auditors and investigators examined 300 rides that were expected to be taken and documented, of which 29 percent (89 rides) had no logs to support that any work was done. In 14 percent of all rides, staffers were not on the job, though they were scheduled to work and were paid for those hours. None of the 211 logs that did exist reported any significant performance or safety issue, raising serious questions about the quality of oversight provided by the unit. Staff was supposed to take six train trips daily to work an eight-hour day, but auditors found that staff averaged only four train trips daily. Auditors and investigators estimate that four unit staff members were paid in excess of $170,000 annually for work that might not have been performed. Supervision was also almost non-existent, with no log of time and attendance records, no observation of staffers on trains and no written schedule of trains to be monitored. Auditors and investigators also found that staffers surfed the internet during work hours, including spending 6.5 hours on firearm sites and Google and 5 hours on various commercial sites such as Chuck E. Cheese. Reviews of cell phone usage found little communication between staff members and their supervisor but did find out-of-state calls and calls home.

So essentially, Metro-North employees earning an average of $138,000 simply did not do their jobs. When they did, they did a poor job and tried to exploit the situation for family members. The audit found, in fact, that an assistant V.P. hired a family member at a salary of $84,700 when the candidate ranked lower than two others and was supposed to be paid under $60,000.

I’ve always said that DiNapoli’s audits are more obvious than they should be, and I don’t think one is any exception. Corruption and croneyism have ruled the day at the region’s railroads for time immemorial. But now, we see the impact this has on public perception and political beliefs. The MTA has worked hard under a few chairmen to get its house in order, but it’s such a mess that these stories continue to crop up in division after division. For progress to be made in terms of funding, Albany will have to trust the MTA with the dollars. Right now would you if you were in their shoes?