Consultant stays on for end-to-end review of MBTA’s ‘money room’
The security consultant who identified a slew of embarrassing lapses inside the MBTA’ so-called “money room” is staying on to do what she described as an “end-to-end review” — one that T officials say could carry through until all of the facility’s problems are shored up.
Shellie Crandall, who led the audit of the T’s cash operations facility, said she and the firm 4Demand are still doing a “complete review” of the Charlestown operation beyond its initial findings, which the Herald reported yesterday included duct-taped doors, disabled cameras and broken vault locks.
To date, the review has cost $50,000. But T officials said the tab is likely to grow, as the agency will retain the firm’s services “until all issues have been addressed and the operation has been stabilized,” spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an email.
“It really is going to depend on the next steps,” Crandall told the Herald, citing a $500,000 tab just to bring the facility up to what she called industry standard. “Are we going to invest that money? Are we going to fix those gaps? We’re still in our evaluations period.”
The facility, where workers handle nearly $200 million in cash each year, is suffering from a range of problems, according to the blistering audit.
Beyond faulty equipment — such as a door with a duct-taped handle leading to the facility’s vault — Crandall pointed to inventory problems, including one small vault that contained anywhere from 500 to 1,000 copies of keys used to open fare boxes, plus 3,000 more in another box.
The details come as T leaders eye privatization options, saying they’re on the hunt for savings from the $10 million they spend annually on the 70-plus employees and the facility itself. It’s a move union officials have railed against, saying operational problems lie with management, not the workers.
Although Rafael Mares, a transit advocate from the Conservation Law Foundation, said the audit “clearly identified some problems,” he said he hopes officials provide a more complete analysis before the T’s Fiscal Management and Control Board votes on whether to seek a private contractor.
“I’ve just seen an analysis of the problem, but not of the different options” to fix it, he said. “You’d have to understand where the savings are coming from.”