[Nfbf-l] [NFBF-Leaders] Re: Check out Special TransportationService drivers accused of faking trips ...

Fri Jan 15 02:53:40 UTC 2010

Kathy, this was my concern as well! I have forwarded Dwight's message to our 
Public   transportationheads heads and other friends I have in Public office 
here to let them know what is happening in other area's of Florida so as to 
vbe more aware for our service here to be able to protect us from this type 
of awful criminals!  I can't believe how low some people can get by taking 
advantage of the elderly and disabled around them, especially the ones they 
are ppaid to protect! Your friend, kirktransportation
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathy Davis" <kdavisnfbf at cfl.rr.com>
To: <NFBF-Leaders at yahoogroups.com>; <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbf-l] [NFBF-Leaders] Re: Check out Special 
TransportationService drivers accused of faking trips ...

Dwight, this is amazing information! I wonder how much fraudulent activity
actually goes on in other areas of Florida.

Kathy

  _____

From: NFBF-Leaders at yahoogroups.com [mailto:NFBF-Leaders at yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of REPCODDS at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 7:10 PM
To: nfbf-l at nfbnet.org; nfbf-leaders at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NFBF-Leaders] Re: Check out Special Transportation Service drivers
accused of faking trips ...

In Special <http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1424008.html>
Transportation Service drivers accused of faking trips - Miami-Dade -
MiamiHerald.com

Miami-Dade  <http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/index.html>
<http://www.miamiherald.com/>

SPECIAL TRANSPORTATION SERVICE

Special Transportation Service drivers accused of faking trips

More than a dozen Special Transportation Service workers were arrested on
charges of billing taxpayers for phantom trips for the elderly and disabled.

BY DAVID OVALLE AND MATTHEW HAGGMAN

mhaggman at MiamiHeral <mailto:mhaggman at MiamiHerald.com> d.com

In one case, taxpayers were charged for nearly 100 transit trips ferrying a
mentally disabled person who hadn't used the service. In another, the public
was billed for trips by a driver who had died.

In all, authorities said Wednesday, a company employed by Miami-Dade
County's transit agency to transport the elderly and disabled overbilled
taxpayers at least $212,000 for phantom trips.

Miami-Dade Police arrested 12 drivers and a supervisor Wednesday at the
county's Special Transportation Service, a division of Miami-Dade Transit.
The charge: engaging in an organized scheme to defraud. Sixteen arrest
warrants have been issued in all, court records show.

The arrests represent a new chapter in a broader history of waste and
mismanagement that has punctuated Miami-Dade County's stewardship of the
transit system that included a 2002 half-penny sales tax that promised far
more than it delivered.

A Miami-Dade Transit audit found that over a three-week period in May 2007,
30 percent of rides documented never took place -- equaling a loss of
$857,000. Auditors projected losses ``expected to exceed $10 million'' the
past five years, the warrant said.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez declined comment through spokeswoman
Victoria Mallette. ``This is an ongoing investigation that we are taking
very seriously,'' Mallette added in an e-mail.

The round of arrests comes as the lucrative contract to operate Miami-Dade
Transit's service for elderly and disabled riders who can't use normal
public transit is set to expire in March.

The county's Special Transportation Service, created in 1976, is run by
Miami-based Advance Transportation Solutions and four subcontractors. ATS, a
privately-held company, has had the contract since 2001; its latest deal,
signed with the county in 2004, is worth $219 million.

Each day, ATS and its subcontractors make more than 6,000 trips ferrying
disabled and elderly residents in buses and sedans across the county, even
into the Florida Keys. Last year, Miami-Dade Transit spent $43 million
operating the Special Transporation Service.

ATS, in a press release, said it discovered the bogus trips and immediately
hired retired police detectives to launch an internal investigation. The
findings were turned over to Miami-Dade police, and the company reimbursed
the county for the bogus trips.

``The evidence provided by ATS resulted in an extensive police investigation
culminating in today's arrests,'' the company's statement said.

Yet, it remains unclear if ATS -- which has hired a host of lobbyists --
will be able to retain the contract.

In a memo to commissioners Wednesday, County Manager George Burgess wrote
that, after initially planning to extend the ATS contract that expires in
March, he's changed his mind while county officials review proposals to run
the transit division under a new five-year contract.

``The seriousness of the charges connected to this ongoing investigation and
today's arrests and the unanswered questions which they pose with respect to
the performance of the existing vendor, has affected my ability to recommend
to the Board any extension of the existing contract,'' Burgess wrote.

Instead, Burgess said he plans to negotiate with a new vendor, who would run
the transit operation for two years.

Citing escalating costs, some commissioners have proposed curtailing pricey
services such as transporting riders into Monroe County. Taking the transit
division in-house, rather than outsourced to a private contractor, has also
been contemplated.

``We have to make some changes,'' said Commissioner Carlos Gimenez.

In the STS computer system, each rider was assigned a specific number used
to schedule trips. According to a warrant filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court,
the ID numbers were used to book the phantom trips, which were then billed
to the county.

Supervisor Tesla Narvaez-Waidner, who had complete access to the booking
system, was ``integral in this fraudulent scheme,'' the warrant said. She,
like the others arrested, was charged with an organized scheme to defraud.

One driver, Uriel Granjales, booked 112 trips in the name of one rider that
never happened, police said. Granjales was booked into a Miami-Dade jail
Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, eight of the drivers were asked to attend a county
training meeting in the Miami Dade Transit auditorium.

``We would like your participation in evaluating additional changes,'' wrote
Hugh Chen, Miami-Dade Transit deputy director of operations.

The drivers shuffled into the auditorium for the purported training session
-- and were arrested.

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