{"id":374246,"date":"2021-11-30T08:01:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T05:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/mta-shifting-priorities-put-overtime-reforms-at-risk\/"},"modified":"2021-11-30T08:01:02","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T05:01:02","slug":"mta-shifting-priorities-put-overtime-reforms-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/mta-shifting-priorities-put-overtime-reforms-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"#MTA &#8216;shifting priorities&#8217; put overtime reforms &#8216;at risk&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#MTA &#8216;shifting priorities&#8217; put overtime reforms &#8216;at risk&#8217;<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The MTA\u2019s antiquated overtime system continues to work OT for cash-grab scams as the agency\u2019s $31 million effort to curtail potential payroll pilfering is \u201cat-risk,\u201d according to the agency\u2019s Inspector <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The multi-million effort to prevent overtime abuse is failing as officials slow-roll the integration of modern timekeeping into the authority\u2019s payroll systems, the IG\u2019s latest quarterly review of the program\u2019s progress stated.<\/p>\n<p>Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny\u2019s office said \u201cshifts in organizational priorities\u201d have left the multi-year effort in limbo \u2014 even as MTA employees rack up indictments for stealing time under a decades-old OT paper-dependent \u201chonor system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The challenge is \u201csurmountable,\u201d the IG said in the report, if the MTA\u2019s new leadership under Gov. Kathy Hochul cares to fix it: \u201cIf management plans to abandon the effort this far into the project, then it should be transparent about that decision,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Pokorny\u2019s office has been keeping tabs on the MTA\u2019s overtime reforms since 2019, after The Post exposed allegations of overtime abuse following a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of expos\u00e9s on LIRR workers pulling in huge paychecks.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/080620lirr20CS.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"general view of a Long Island Railroad train or LIRR train as seen at Penn Station in New York, NY on August 6, 2020.\" class=\"wp-image-20308784\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/080620lirr20CS.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/080620lirr20CS.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/080620lirr20CS.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Carolyn Pokorny\u2019s office has been keeping tabs on the MTA\u2019s overtime reforms since 2019.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Christopher Sadowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Many of the MTA\u2019s supervisors \u201crelied entirely on the honesty of employees\u201d in doling out OT \u2014 creating an \u201chonor system\u201d rife with opportunities for fraud, Pokorny has said.<\/p>\n<p>That unsupervised collection of OT wages has also resulted multiple prosecutions \u2014 including of the MTA\u2019s 2018 \u201cOvertime King\u201d Thomas Caputo, an LIRR employee who the feds said conspired with coworkers to land jobs on mega-projects where they could get away with sleeping or playing hooky out of view of LIRR management.<\/p>\n<p>The MTA, under previous Chairman Pat Foye, hired Morrison &amp; Foerster LLP in 2019 to develop a plan for to prevent and catch fraud in the future. The firm urged officials to scrap paper-based OT accounting for \u201cbiometric\u201d clocks that require workers to swipe in and out of work, and scan their fingerprints when they do so.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/November-10-2021-Brooklyn-Chamber-of-Commerce-event.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Janno Lieber\" class=\"wp-image-20308752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/November-10-2021-Brooklyn-Chamber-of-Commerce-event.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/November-10-2021-Brooklyn-Chamber-of-Commerce-event.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/November-10-2021-Brooklyn-Chamber-of-Commerce-event.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she plans to nominate Janno Lieber to a full term.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Paul Martinka<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Transit leaders have waived the fingerprint requirement since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the IG. Meanwhile, Kronos participation declined in the third quarter of 2021 compared to earlier in the year \u2014 something officials only investigated after the IG\u2019s office brought it to their attention, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Until Kronos and payroll are fully integrated and digitized, management will lack key tools to verify OT wages and catch cheaters, the IG said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe integration is a vital component of the MTA\u2019s overtime reforms, which my Office has demonstrated is critically needed through exposing bad actors and emphasizing the need to decrease wasteful, unverifiable overtime across the MTA,\u201d Pokorny said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/112021HOCHUL4WM.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Gov. Kathy Hochul\" class=\"wp-image-20308732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/112021HOCHUL4WM.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/112021HOCHUL4WM.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/112021HOCHUL4WM.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>The challenge is \u201csurmountable\u201d if the MTA\u2019s new leadership under Gov. Kathy Hochul cares to fix it.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">William Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The report also blamed delays on \u201cturnover in project leads,\u201d alluding to the departure of Chief Operating Officer and overtime reform task force head Mario Peloquin in March.<\/p>\n<p>Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo replaced Foye with MTA construction czar Janno Lieber in July. Hochul has said she plans to nominate Lieber to a full term. Pokorny is also a Cuomo <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ointee.<\/p>\n<p>The MTA noted that OT spending has dropped since 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe MTA continues to address how best to achieve full integration of the Kronos payroll system,\u201d spokesman mike Cortez said in a statement. \u201cMeasures already implemented have resulted in annual overtime expenditures dropping by hundreds of millions of dollars and we are committed to additional material reductions in overtime costs.\u201d\n                        <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/11\/30\/mta-shifting-priorities-put-overtime-reforms-at-risk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#MTA &#8216;shifting priorities&#8217; put overtime reforms &#8216;at risk&#8217;&#8221; The MTA\u2019s antiquated overtime system continues to work OT for cash-grab scams as the agency\u2019s $31 million effort to curtail potential payroll pilfering is \u201cat-risk,\u201d according to the agency\u2019s Inspector General. The multi-million effort to prevent overtime abuse is failing as officials slow-roll the integration of modern&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/062619POKORNY7GPM.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[120608,70865,76866,71452,77737],"class_list":["post-374246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-30-21","tag-government-spending","tag-lirr","tag-mta","tag-overtime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}