It’s a decades-old parking perk in Boston for a select few that's sure to irritate you if you drive into the city, especially when you see what 5 Investigates uncovered.The state-owned Haymarket Center Garage opened 20 years ago, offering up to 60 monthly parking spaces at a deeply discounted price. The Big Dig had put the old elevated highway underground, but in the process, also gobbled up some existing parking spots between the North End and downtown Boston. The discounted parking in the Haymarket garage was essentially a peace offering to North End residents. It was a serious offering. Under the program, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, selected drivers are charged only $150 a month for 24/7 access to a spot in the garage. That boils down to just $5 a day for a prime, downtown parking space. Monthly charges for parking spots in other garages in that part of Boston range from $385 at the Government Center Garage to $520 a month at the Center Plaza Garage. The 20-year-old agreement between the state and the City of Boston clearly spells out the eligibility requirements for the cut-rate monthly passes in the Haymarket garage. The spaces are only for "North End Residents... with a valid North End Resident Parking Sticker on their vehicle." 5 Investigates obtained a current list of the 64 people with the discounted parking, searched public records and visited North End addresses. 5 Investigates found more than 40 percent of the people enjoying the lucrative parking perk are either questionable or don't qualify at all. Parking spaces are coveted in downtown Boston, between hard-to-come-by meters where your time is up before you know it, and privately owned garages where the price is often a good, swift kick in the wallet. “It's horrible. It's like disgusting,” said one driver. “My parking space is double what my apartment cost in college,” said another. “Can't afford it,” said another driver, who pays a garage $40 a day, five days a week to park when he’s working downtown. That adds up to a staggering $800 a month. “All these working-class people coming in and it's a big chunk of change out of your pocket, taken out of your kids’ mouths,” he said. “It's hard.” It's not so hard for the lucky drivers who have the discounted spaces in the state-owned Haymarket Center Garage. But 5 Investigates found MassDOT’s management of the decades old program lacking. One person on the list is a doctor who lives in a million-dollar home in the suburbs. Her office is downtown, but not in the North End. Another person with the coveted parking perk is a woman who owns a business near the garage. She lives on the South Shore. 5 Investigates is not identifying these two women because they insist they were told they were eligible for the discount parking, which raises even more questions about state oversight of the program. “I can't speak to which people are on the list or how they got onto that list,” Jonathan Gulliver, MassDOT's highway administrator, told 5 Investigates. Among them are area businesses that are getting inexpensive parking spots, even though the program is only for North End residents. The owner of the now shuttered hair salon El Coco International on North St. got a spot. When his business closed two years ago, he said he tried to give it up, but he's still on the list. The Union Oyster House is also on the list with two discounted parking spots. A manager at the restaurant told 5 Investigates one of those passes is used by the co-owner. Records show she does live in the North End, in a $4.5 million waterfront condo. Asked why businesses have discount parking passes intended only for North End residents, Gulliver said, “I can't speak as to why there are businesses on the list. That was not the intention of this program.” Let’s just say Gulliver can't speak to a lot of things. Asked if MassDOT has mismanaged the parking program, Gulliver said, “I can't speak to how it was managed in the past.” “Going forward though, we are going to go through that list, we're going to scrub it out,” he said. “We're going to make sure that if you're not entitled to be there, that your pass gets revoked.” After 5 Investigates started asking questions, MassDOT posted signs in the Haymarket garage notifying everyone with the discounted parking passes that they will have to prove they live in the North End by end of the month. If they can’t prove their eligibility, their parking privileges will be revoked. 5 Investigates asked Gulliver if anyone at MassDOT has been paying attention to who has the valuable perk. “Again, I can't speak to how it was managed prior to now, only that when it was brought to our attention this past year, when we identified the problem, that we are taking proactive steps to make sure that we get back into compliance,” Gulliver said. In fact, it was 5 Investigates that first identified the problem, not MassDOT.