MTA official flirts with transit sales agent peddling her wares — and ends up costing taxpayers big-time: probe

A goo-goo-eyed MTA higher-up flirted with a crafty saleswoman, and taxpayers ended up shelling out beaucoup bucks over her jacked-up wares — which included $78 scrub brushes worth $8, officials say.

The now-former agency worker, Assistant Deputy Chief Procurement Officer Omar Messado, began a questionable personable relationship with the woman, who peddled transit equipment, in mid-2023, according to MTA Inspector General Daniel Cort’s office Tuesday.

The pair met after hours and exchanged hundreds of texts — some sexually suggestive — and phone calls as their relationship grew, said a report issued by the office.

“Hey, you never know. You may have a skill I know nothing about. But it could be fun to discover,” Messado texted the unidentified woman Aug. 11, 2023.

“Oops, did I say that,” he quipped.

The woman cooed in a text to the agency worker Sept. 25, 2024, “Don’t know if you remember but a day like today a year ago you decided to see this person behind the phone.

“Ever since then I can’t stop dreaming about you.”

Messado responded, “I love your words.

“Thank you for the reminder. Ever since meeting you, I’ve been wonderfully intoxicated.”

When the sales agent told Messado not to forget to drink his hot tea in an Aug. 23, 2023 message. he responded, “Thank you, nurse.”

She added that if his illness persisted, “Then I have a prescription but you might have some side effects which are normal.”

Messado told MTA investigators that the pair never had a sexual relationship — though he added, “I would’ve liked to,’” the report said.

The MTA worker was meanwhile signing off on a slew of contracts involving the woman’s company — many at costs “well above market rate,’’ Cort’s office said.

“This procurement officer abused his authority to further his personal relationship with a sales agent, even though his job was to prevent wasteful spending and ensure a fair bidding process,” Cort said in a statement.

For example, Messado tried to push a contract to buy scrub brushes for a staggering $78 apiece that were being offered elsewhere for around $8, the report said.

The discrepancy was so out of whack that a facility manager flagged it, and Metro-North refused to pay for the pricey brushes and found an alternative, the report said.

Messado also awarded a bid to the woman’s company for forklifts that could have been bought for $67,000 but which her firm instead charged $107,800 a pop.

Then there were the employee vests that should have been priced about $82 each but cost $153 from the woman’s company, the report said.

Messado was responsible for approving 140 of 194 contracts totaling $3.4 million with the company.

The saleswoman thanked Messado for speeding up payments to her biz at one point, writing Sept. 14, 2023, “I cannot express the gratitude I am feeling at this moment.”

He replied, “Gratitude is not needed. Your happiness is good enough.’’

She responded, “Your comment just melted my heart.”

The report said Messado violated numerous MTA and state conflict of interest, anti-corruption and ethics rules, and the MTA fired him.

“This type of corrupt behavior will not be tolerated at any level of the MTA, and especially not from a senior procurement professional whose entire function revolves around ensuring fairness and integrity in our processes and protecting public tax dollars,” said MTA Chief Administrative Officer Lisette Camilo.

Messado could not be reached for comment.

But he told probers the nature of their late-night chats or texts as relating to children, cooking, and life and that they were from the same part of the world.

He denied showing her favoritism with procurement contracts