Feeling screwed yet?

Scathing report says Port Authority is a 'dysfunctional organization'

By JOSH MARGOLIN

The Port Authority is a “dysfunctional organization” with an average compensation package of $143,000 for each of its 7,000 workers and it needs a “top-to-bottom overhaul” if it’s going to get out of its dire financial condition.

Those are just a few of the key findings of a scathing report to be released this afternoon by the agency that runs the airports, Hudson River crossings and World Trade Center.

The conclusions are the result of the first phase of a sweeping audit commissioned by the PA in the wake of last summer’s controversial move to hike Hudson tolls by up to 50 percent per ride.

The PA suffers “from a lack of consistent leadership, a siloed underlying bureaucracy, poorly coordinated capital planning processes, insufficient cost controls, anda lack of transparent and effective oversight of the World Trade Center program,” according to a letter accompanying the report sent to Gov. Cuomo and NJ Gov. Chris Christie, who jointly control the agency.

The report slammed a host of PA functions but reserved its harshest language for the skyrocketing and hidden cost of rebuilding Ground Zero and a bloated payroll that needs to be brought back down from the stratosphere.

Rebuilding the 16 acres destroyed on 9/11 is now pegged to cost at least $14.8 billion and that sum can easily grow by at least another $1 billion if things aren’t brought under control, the auditors found.

As for compensation, auditors and the PA’s special review committee are calling for an outright end to hidden “add-on” compensation, strict overtime controls and mandatory employee contributions to their health-insurance packages.

Shockingly, auditors found “gross compensation at the Port Authority has grown in the last five years by approximately 19 percent” even as the nation has struggled through the worst recession in nearly a century.

“The organization is at a crucial crossroads,” auditors wrote. “A significant undertaking will be required.”