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“I’ll tell you how to save taxpayers’ money,” the man told me.
“Get rid of waste and fraud. That ought to help!”
This past week the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau reported on just
such efforts.
Three years ago I voted to pass a law creating the Fraud, Waste, and
Mismanagement Hotline. Operational since April of 2008, the hotline was
established to encourage the public, government employees and contractors to
report suspected fraud, waste, mismanagement and other improper activities
happening within state government. Calls into the hotline’s toll free
number, 1-877-FRAUD-17, are managed by a Certified Fraud Examiner.
The hotline does not duplicate or replace other government hotlines or
complaint services. Those who contact the hotline with concerns not related
to state government are referred to the proper authorities. People calling
the hotline remain anonymous, although they are encouraged to leave their
names so staff can follow up with questions. If a call results in an
investigation, the name of those who left information is kept completely
confidential - by law.
The recent hotline audit reported 79 hotline calls last year. Of those
calls, several were not related to state government. Callers leaving tips
about federal programs or private businesses were referred to the proper
office. Calls that alleged criminal activities unrelated to state government
were referred to local authorities.
While some allegations of improper employee behavior were made in 2008
(including allegations of an employee improperly benefiting at the state’s
expense), no reports of employee misconduct were made in 2009.
Fifty-three of the hotline tips received last year were directly related to
state government. These calls alleged fraud and inefficiencies in state
government, including mismanagement, lack of staff oversight, over spending,
improperly billing the state or not complying with state rules.
Several of the problems involved contracts with the state. False information
or improper reporting, goods paid for by the state and not received,
agencies not following the proper procedures for selecting vendors, improper
billing and agencies not properly monitoring private contractors. These
hotline tips were investigated by Audit Bureau staff.
The hotline is also an invaluable resource for those of us who serve on the
Legislative Audit Committee. We follow-up on Audit Bureau investigations and
several hotline calls led to full fledged investigations and public hearings
before the committee.
In 2008 a hotline call reported inconsistencies in the enforcement of strict
standards relating to the thickness of concrete in roads. The investigation
resulted in two public hearings by the Legislative Audit Committee.
Unfortunately, our committee was left more questions than answers. The Audit
Bureau continues to keep the Audit committee informed of the progress on the
state’s quality control of state highway construction.
Another call to the hotline told investigators of potentially unnecessary
overtime. Strict federal rules govern overtime at state facilities, such as
prisons. We learned in the public hearing that adding staff could actually
reduce costs. Our prisons had too few staff and forced workers to work
overtime at time and half. Often the higher paid employees volunteered for
the overtime - further inflating the costs.
The Audit Committee continues to monitor the use of employee overtime -
especially important this year because of the Governor’s requirement that
all state employees take unpaid furloughs from work.
People expect government to be efficiently run. Taxpayers deserve to have
their dollars wisely spent. The hotline is one way to get to the root of a
problem and clean things up. It’s one of the reasons I love my job working
with state auditor and her staff as Co-Chair of the Legislative Audit
Committee. Working together we all serve as stewards of the people’s money.
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