WMATA fires track supervisor for overtime abuse

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has dismissed a track department supervisor for overtime abuse, the agency announced late last week.

WMATA determined the employee violated the agency's policies and received "significant overtime earnings," even during times when he wasn't working, agency officials said in a press release.

In addition, WMATA placed other employees under administrative review following an interim report from the agency's office of inspector general, which is investigating potential fraud in overtime pay.

The inspector general's office analyzed overall overtime earnings and found that certain track managers earned more than double their base salary in overtime, a recurring pattern over several years.

The issue was occurring even before WMATA's SafeTrack accelerated maintenance plan began in June 2016, agency officials said.

"As stewards of the public's trust, all of us at [WMATA] must hold ourselves to a standard of conduct that is above suspicion and reproach," said WMATA General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Paul Wiedefeld. "We have a code of ethics that prohibits abuse of employment here for private gain."