MATA has one month of expenses left, then it’s out of cash
Community members attend a Memphis Area Transit Authority board meeting on Tuesday, October 22, 2024. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
The City of Memphis hired PriceWaterhouseCoopers to examine the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s finances.
The accounting giant’s hire comes as the city works to install other consultants in the bus system’s C-suite. Memphis will pay PWC $600,000. The money for forensic accounting adds to the city’s growing investment in a bus system that is not a city division.
Last month, the MATA Board of Commissioners voted to work on a contract with Transpro, a consulting firm the city hired. The contract would allow several Transpro executives to assume interim leadership roles at MATA and take over day-to-day operations.
This fall, the city released a scathing report by Transpro; Memphis Mayor Paul Young also replaced the entire board and installed the current board.
A few weeks later, the Young administration moved to install John Lewis and three other Transpro executives into MATA part-time. That move, when it’s agreed to, will cost Memphis taxpayers $1.2 million.
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Subscriber Only Memphis Area Transit Authority MATA John Lewis JB Smiley Jr. TransPro Consultants LLC PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Memphis Mayor Paul YoungIt’s GivingTuesday week! Will you join the celebration?
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
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