NJ Transit won't share publicly-funded Sandy report

A publicly-funded report detailing how NJ Transit spent federal superstorm Sandy aid is not subject to public records laws, according to NJ Transit - itself a state creation that is propped up by tax dollars.

A month ago, the first state-required Integrity Oversight Monitoring report on how NJ Transit spent Sandy aid was released. The report, however, provided no information on what, if any, misuse or fraud was discovered.

You can read the original story here: Any misuse of Sandy aid by NJ Transit? Report won’t say.

Other monitoring reports contained pages of description on what went right, what went wrong and what corrections should be made.

However, EisnerAmper, the accounting firm paid $88,000 to review NJ Transit's Sandy spending, wrote "Observations and recommendations have been provided to the NJ Transit Internal Audit Department" in the section where any findings were supposed to be listed.

These "observations and recommendations" would ostensibly deal with the $1.3 billion NJ Transit received through the U.S. Federal Transit Administration’s Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program.

When the Asbury Park Press asked NJ Transit in July for a copy of whatever EisnerAmper had provided them, the bus and rail operator declined to immediately provide it, In response, the Press filed an Open Public Records Act request.

On Thursday, NJ Transit informed the Press that it would not be releasing the report, referring to it as a "draft report and draft Powerpoint presentation" and saying that the materials were exempt from public disclosure because they were "advisory, consultative or deliberative" in nature.

After the Press's initial report, Democratic Congressmen Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell wrote a letter to the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, which is supervising the monitoring reports, urging them to compel NJ Transit to be more transparent.

"We fought hard in Congress to pass the Sandy aid package by assuring our colleagues that Sandy recovery funds were desperately needed and would be spent wisely," the letter reads. "The public deserves to know whether taxpayer dollars are being spent properly."

Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com