Friday, July 3, 2009

MTA flushed $250M down the toilet

From the Times Ledger:

A transit official told a City Council committee that the MTA paid the Lockheed-Martin company $250 million to improve anti-terrorism security in the subways to little avail and that the transit agency had fired the company.

“Lockheed has not been able to pass the required software system tests needed for us to have confidence that everything can work as intended,” said Veronique Hakim, senior vice president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Construction Co.

Hakim testified at a public hearing by the Council Transportation Committee, headed by Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) June 24 at City Hall.

Liu said when the Transportation Committee questioned the effectiveness of the system and the wisdom of awarding such a long-term contract so hastily without a fully competitive bid, the MTA replied that Lockheed’s system was a proven technology.

“Now we learn that the MTA has flushed $250 million down the drain and has little to show for it,” Liu said.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Add to their bad decisions, these bus shelters. In the winter the metal is so cold you can't sit and in the summer its hotter in the shelter than outside of it. I think we need to throw the whole board out and get new blood!

Anonymous said...

That ain't the half of of it!

Anonymous said...

i work for the sub contractor who was doing the installation . you guys really dont know the half of it

Anonymous said...

The bus shelters are the responsibility of the New York City Department of Transportation. The MTA has nothing to do with them.