This is in response to “Ventra card cheating dogs CTA; Agency using trip history, stings to crack down on fraud as inquiry estimates $2.8M in lost revenue” (Page 1, Nov. 12).
The obvious solution for CTA fare cheats is to automatically invalidate the Ventra card of any subsidized account that evidences a pattern of fraudulent use.
Put the burden of proof on these suspicious accounts to demonstrate that their use of the subsidized fare card is legitimate.
If they can do so, reimburse them for the fares they paid while their card was suspended.
Whenever the government doles out “free” goods and services, many people who don’t qualify for the subsidy will go through great lengths to unlawfully tap into the free goodies, whether it’s subsidized CTA passes, handicapped parking passes or federal welfare assistance.
People who steal public resources are far more creative than the government bureaucracies charged with enforcing the eligibility rules.
Most of the fraud, waste and abuse is never uncovered, publicized or recouped. This is true because government agencies don’t need to turn a profit to survive, unlike every for-profit business; public losses can be covered with increased taxes, increased debt or both.
The solution to this problem is to turn over the operation (but not the ownership) of the CTA to a private management company that gets a negotiated management fee and a percentage of the operating costs savings it achieves under a five-year renewable contract. Give the private management company a bounty to go after all the current fraud, waste and abuse, which is far more pervasive than acknowledged.
Don’t sell off the public infrastructure (as did the absurd, shortsighted parking meter deal pushed through by Mayor Richard M. Daley); just hire more competent private managers and reward them for eliminating all the government waste and for saving taxpayers’ money.
— Dale E. Kleber, Hinsdale
