Hamilton officials remain committed to collecting all of the $1.8 million in bus fare box revenue from a former private security firm contracted to collect and deposit money into the municipality’s account.

City officials say Avero Security Inc., an armoured car transportation and coin counting services, “failed to deposit” into the city’s bank account $1.81 million in cash fares and other money the city received. Hamilton launched legal action against the company in May 2009. The city ended its four-year contract with Avero in Oct. 2009. Shortly afterward the company went into receivership.

City officials have been attempting to recoup the money, and to date have recovered $1.57 million. Councillors have already turned down an offer made by the company’s insurance firm to settle the issue.

City officials say they are continuing to recover the remainder of the bus fare cash, but because of the court-supervised receivership process, it is unknown if the money will be recovered.

Besides Hamilton, Toronto, Vaughan and Mississauga are also trying to capture their bus fare revenue from Avero.