#MTA staffer busted giving work iPhone to African gal pal, trying to score new one

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Jerry Manneh, of the MTA, was forced to resign after a snafu where he said he lost his iPhone but actually had given it to a girlfriend in Africa.
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An MTA computer expert was busted giving his work-issued iPhone to a girlfriend in Liberia — then trying to switch his busted personal device for a fresh one, according to the agency’s watchdog.

Jerry Manneh exchanged what he claimed was his damaged MTA-issued iPhone 8 Plus on Jan. 8 — only for officials to locate the actual company phone in Africa six days later, MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny’s office said in a report released Wednesday.

IG investigators later determined that Manneh’s girlfriend had registered the government-issued phone under her own Apple username on Dec. 5, 2019, the report says.

The damaged decoy, meanwhile, was first activated using the MTA’s Verizon account on Dec. 29 — the same day Manneh returned from his month-long trip to Liberia, IG sleuths determined.

Confronted, Manneh initially claimed he’d left the phone in Africa by accident, and denied that he’d switched the phones’ SIM cards.

The computer analyst, whose job duties included managing the cellphones of MTA executives, “implausibly” feigned ignorance about the unique features of an MTA-issued iPhone, the IG said.

Manneh was also discovered to have lied about the length of his vacation, and receiving pay for five days he never worked, Pokorny’s office said.

Manneh “intentionally passed off the Damaged iPhone as the Original iPhone to the MTA, gave the Original iPhone to his girlfriend for permanent use in a foreign country, then lied repeatedly about it,” the IG’s office wrote in its report.

He returned the stolen device on Jan. 29. He resigned on July 7, after a disciplinary hearing recommended he be fired.

“This employee was suspended without pay and then terminated following a hearing because the MTA has no tolerance for abuse of agency property,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said in a statement. “The MTA has a strict and clear code of ethics and expects each employee to adhere to that code.”

The report was just one of 10 disciplinary reports published by the IG’s office Wednesday.

Other wrongdoers include MTA employees moonlighting at Amtrak, the USPS and JFK Airport; a Metro-North overtime fraudster; a superintendent who stole epoxy floor patching material, and three employees who failed to report second jobs.

The 10 reports have resulted in three employee resignations and $30,000 in recouped payments so far, according to the IG’s office.

Among the dismissals was the USPS double-timer, who spent just four months as an MTA signal maintainer before the agency found out he’d taken months of sick leave instead of resigning from his post office job.

The epoxy crook, meanwhile, could lose his job for attempting to walk off with two five-gallon buckets worth a total of $798.

“It is no secret MTA is in a precarious position,” Pokorny said in a statement. “Employee misconduct, especially dual employment, can have serious safety and financial ramifications, which the MTA simply cannot afford.”

The Post was unable to find a working phone number for Manneh.