Gov. Phil Murphy (D) vetoed a $32.6 million contract that NJ Transit had recently approved with Hoboken-based Academy Bus due to ongoing litigation where the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is accusing the company of defrauding NJ Transit out of $15 million.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Given these allegations of fraud raised in the Complaint, NJT must investigate what, if any, impact these allegations may have on the award of this contract for Middlesex County service,” Murph wrote in a letter to NJ Transit officials on Wednesday, as The Record first reported.
“Additionally, in light of these allegations, NJT must examine the overall performance of Academy under their existing contracts with NJT in order to determine if that will have any impact on this potential contract award.”
The NJ Transit board approved the new contract on November 12th, four days prior to when the AG’s office filed their lawsuit, so NJ Transit officials were unaware of the fraud allegations, the governor said in the letter.
The suit, filed by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, alleges that Academy engaged in an “extensive multi-year, multi-million-dollar fraud” by failing to report tens of thousands of missed bus trips between April 2012 and December 2018.
