ATLANTA – Atlanta city officials say MARTA owes taxpayers millions of dollars after an audit found the transit agency may have overcharged for services under the city’s “More MARTA” program.

Eight years after citizens voted to expand bus and rail services, an independent audit uncovered discrepancies of more than $70 million between the funds spent and the actual cost of the services.

“The suspicion was there … it’s disappointing that the suspicion was confirmed,” Atlanta City Councilman Michael Bond told FOX 5.

Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman said he and other council members began raising alarms about the program’s spending about a year and a half ago.

“The auditors found that in certain years they could not determine how MARTA had made the calculations for service delivery,” he explained.

Findings released Monday by an independent firm show that MARTA overcharged for services between 2020 and 2022.

The transportation company admitted to making mistakes totaling just over $20 million during those years.

“Their calculations were too high,” Shipman said.

MARTA officials sent a letter in response to the auditors’ recommendations for better documentation and communication – and agreed with most of them – but disputed the 2017-2019 findings that showed a $40 million performance gap.

In a statement to FOX 5, a MARTA spokesperson said:

“Mauldin & Jenkins’ calculations are incorrect. They used flawed methodology by applying a COVID-based formula to reverse engineer what they thought should be the cost of bus service in 2017, 2018 and 2019, resulting in incorrect calculations. MARTA calculated the cost of actual bus service during those years, and city officials in charge at the time were aware of those costs, as monthly meeting minutes show.

“MARTA has informed the City and Mauldin & Jenkins of its flawed methodology and is disappointed that our audit responses, which were provided to both parties, were not included or referenced.”

Bond says his concern is the public’s sense of trust.

“We went out and gave voters the message that if they supported the referendum, 100 percent of the money would be spent on what they really want,” Bond explained.

MARTA’s statement continued: “Despite these failures, MARTA will continue to work in good faith with the City to improve the IGA and strengthen the overall success of the More MARTA Atlanta program.”

The next step is a meeting between MARTA representatives and Mayor Andre Dickens to reach a common position.