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(cont...)

Other expenses were of a purely personal nature -- $454 at a golf pro shop, for example, or $335 in clothing from Men's Wearhouse, even a $58 visit to the dentist -- and should never have been charged at all, said state legislators who conducted the external audit, especially considering that Ford failed to reimburse MARTA for some of them when he departed.

Jonnie Keith, MARTA's internal auditor, determined Ford had reimbursed the authority for about $10,500 in personal expenses charged to the cards during his tenure. Keith questioned many other charges, however. In response, Ford sent MARTA a check for $1,000, with the understanding that he might be asked to repay more later, Keith said.

Supporting documents for thousands of dollars in other expenditures were incomplete or unavailable when MARTA turned the records over to the legislature for its review. An accountant retained by lawmakers to audit the documents has since questioned dozens of expenses, including several of those that caught Keith's eye.

"If we find something else, we'll ask for that too," Keith said.

And Ford, who was paid an annual base salary of $205,000 by MARTA, was not the only person in the executive office who treated taxpayer dollars as his own, the audits show.

One of his secretaries, Stephanie Smart of Kennesaw, used the cards to pay for roughly $6,000 in utility bills, car rentals, gas, groceries and other personal items, Wall said. Smart, who left MARTA at the end of 2005, agreed to repay the entire $6,000, which she primarily charged on the card held by another Ford secretary, Iris Anthony, Keith said.

Anthony went on disability leave at the end of 2005 and sued Ford in January, alleging sexual harassment and abusive behavior.

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