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Reprieve for state auditors is a start

Wed., April 20, 2016

Waste, fraud and abuse.

If the state collected a dollar every time a politician invoked that trio of government offenses, it would never need to cut budgets.

So it was odd to see legislators from both parties hack $10 million out of the budget of the one office charged with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. But they did, on top of the $12.5 million cut from the Washington State Auditor’s Office budget last year.

That $22.5 million represents 74 percent of the office’s budget for performance audits. It’s like complaining about crime while laying off police officers.

Fortunately, Gov. Jay Inslee cut a deal with the office in exchange for a veto of this year’s $10 million cut. The auditor’s office will leave $5 million in the performance audit account to be used for general fund purposes.

That’s still a big reduction over two years. It should be noted that the governor’s own budget called for a $10 million cut before he changed his mind.

Some observers believe the office was an easy target for budget writers, because of the legal troubles of Auditor Troy Kelley. But the work of the office has continued, and taxpayers are better off for it.

On Friday, The Spokesman-Review reported that the Washington Commission on African American Affairs diverted about $258,000 into a former member’s nonprofit organization. How did we know this? State auditors rooted out the problem.

“About $69,000 of the total was spent for things not allowed under state law, such as training people to lobby the Legislature, and transporting and feeding them. Of that amount, $22,000 was spent for transportation, $6,750 for entertainment and $3,500 for rain ponchos. The nonprofit also paid young African-Americans $25 each to attend an event,” the article noted.

In addition, “Auditors couldn’t find contracts for some $103,000 for services, so they couldn’t determine whether those payments were allowable. Another $96,000 in payments couldn’t be tracked because the payee or the purpose couldn’t be determined.”

In short, waste, abuse and possibly fraud, though prosecutors have not been contacted. The commission promises it has made changes.

State auditors have also found that inmates in county jails collected $655,736 in unemployment benefits over a 15-month period. After Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl was strangled by an inmate at the Monroe facility, state auditors found that some safety improvements had been made, but prisons failed to conduct routine searches for items that might be smuggled in by staff.

Other recent auditing examples include weighing the outcomes of alternative learning programs and evaluating the wasteful overlap in workforce development efforts.

The auditor’s office is the only one that evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of government. It can save the taxpayers money. It’s a poor choice for siphoning off money to balance a budget.

The governor’s veto is welcome. And if lawmakers are serious about waste, fraud and abuse, they’ll find a way to restore previous cuts.