Metro: the Venn Diagram

In light of the alleged theft of "in excess of $150,000" over three years by Metro employees, including a cop, I was preparing to write a screed about how Metro was more screwed up than I'd ever imagined, but I instead thought this Venn diagram, suggested by commenter DC Denizen, sums things up far beyond anything I could write.

Apparently, Metro has no auditing system to compare the receipts of the ever-hungry fare machines with the actual take.

Maybe @wmata would have better luck finding wrong doing by conducting random bag checks of its employees, not the passengers @unsuckdcmetro

— rkolosky (@rkolosky) January 19, 2012

A Metro police officer said "Metro is stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to the way they handle funds ... but that's Metro, period! Metro has just accepted the fact that they 'lose' tens of thousands of dollars a month."

That amount, the officer said, is "lost or stolen."

They added "Everything is done [manually]. The chain of people that have access to the money from the time it is taken out of the fare machine to the time it is deposited is insane! With technology the way it is, there is no reason so many people should have access to that large amount of money."

In 2004, instead of getting its house in order, Metro inconvenienced riders and eliminated the ability to pay cash for parking after another skimming incident. Prior to the discovery of the stealing, Metro had been warned for years that theft at its parking facilities could be a problem.

I wonder if they'll decide, in their infinite wisdom, that all of Metro will be cash free--for their convenience, of course.

OK, I guess that was a mini screed.

Whadda Moronic American Transit Authority!