I may have missed an article yesterday, but it seems that the Globe is just coming round to the Herald’s reporting (here and here) of a mini-scandal at the MBTA. It’s amazing that this story hasn’t gotten bigger play: it turns out that two T officials, one the general manager, took well-appointed jobs with a private company that has won a couple of contracts with the MBTA. The most immediate scandal of course, is the possibility that the company was awarded the contracts because of expectations of future employment among the decisionmakers - Dan Grabauskas is now looking into that possibility. But even if there was no direct bribe for the contract, it shows how wrong the culture is at the MBTA - a lack of public service ethos ensures that jumping ship to the private sector will be seen as de rigueur, not shameful. It smacks of the FCC in the 1950s, when a whole agency was in the pocket of broadcasters. Only in this case we don’t seem to have a Newton Minow waiting in the wings.
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