You might think that if two major public entities, like the State Police and Massport, failed for years to make basic information on pay and overtime available, that the State Auditor would be all over it. But you would be wrong.
The Auditor, Suzanne Bump, has been, as they say, missing in action. It was left to the local media to note the obvious.
How many years has this been allowed to go on, in plain sight? Isn’t this the precise thing that we have a State Auditor for?
Meanwhile, in case you were looking for a picture of our Auditor, you don’t have to check the dictionary next to “conspicuous by her absence.” Bump has posted a picture of herself holding a copy of her 19-page report on welfare fraud. Because she investigates welfare fraud EVERY YEAR.
Thanks for this. I’d really like to know where the auditor was when the Green Line extension was going $1 billion over budget. Nothing. Isn’t that real money?
Now that the audit of the recycling practices at Bridgewater State University, 2014-2016, is finally done, maybe the auditor can get on the MBTA.
Going after poor (literally) welfare recipients while big corporations continue to overbill the Commonwealth with impunity is the textbook definition of a Republican politicians publicity move. In our blue state, the small ball stuff is par for the course with too many of our statewide electeds. With the exception of Maura Healey, none of them are doing the hard work of going after the real ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ of our business community. Bump should also have audited the Olympic deals, the Amazon deal, and the GE Deal which will certainly not fulfill its end of the bargain with its current market woes.
Weren’t all those examples in your last sentence city rather than state affairs for the most part?
I’ll leave out the Amazon deal since it is ongoing and the Olympic deal since it fell through. We are left with the GE deal which was a state and city partnership, with the state picking up more of the tab. A deal the non partisan Tax Policy Center is already calling suspect.
Don’t get me wrong – I think that welfare fraud should be investigated. But Bump is playing right in the hands of the Tea Party crowd. The latest headline of her endeavors was Massachusetts welfare and Medicaid fraud hits new record, rising to nearly $17 million, according to new report
What is a headline going to cause the public to want to do? Eliminate welfare and Medicaid! Because obviously, the fraud is HUGE (it’s not) and it’s GETTING WORSE (hard to know, and the report actually stated that the increase could be due to new methods to ferret it out).
It’s a tough line to walk – making sure that government corruption is small-to-nonexistent while not portraying the government as corrupt. I think Bump is doing well at the former, but is failing massively at the latter.
Bump has said all along that if Dems are going to be the party of government and public assistance they also need to be first in line to make sure nobody has an excuse to knock those things. This is Nixon going to China and I’d much rather have a Dem than a GOPer checking these things.
I disagree. I think it buys into the trope that welfare fraud is widespread enough to be a public policy problem. This undercuts electoral support for welfare and other social program and also demonizes racial minorities and immigrants. I would much rather we focus on the real frauds and cheats who are the corporations leeching off tax dollars.
shhhhh! You’ll upset the big donors!
“if Dems are going to be the party of government . . .” Dems should be competent and honest. Christopher, your continual apologies for office holders who fall short, and your Sergeant Schultz attitude have nothing to do with Nixon going to China.
Why is your tone so often so biting? You come across as having a major chip on your shoulder. Maybe I’m quicker to defend because as a political activist I’m friendly with these people, know they are human and know they are trying to do what is best.
Thought you didn’t want to be patronized.
I don’t, but patronizing and biting aren’t your only options, and I find the former to be a form of the latter. Just be civil, that’s all I ask. No sarcasm, anger, etc.
All officeholders fall short. They always have. They always will. Every last one of them. No elected official will ever meet your criteria, Bob. Not one. Because your criteria is uncompromising, but the job is all about compromising. This is why you keep chasing the new and the novel –the unelected who tease you with purity in their pursuit of election — in the hopes that, someday, somehow, they won’t let you down. They will. They will always fall short of your standard, because your standard is unrealistic.
I make no apology for that. Neither, I daresay, does Christopher. We merely accept the human face of representation and don’t expect a messiah.
I wish someday we wouldn’t have unconvicted crooks running things. When I talk to people (retired from Indiana, Illinois, Minn, New Hampshire, Mich), their #1 complaint is how corrupt politicians are. I certainly can’t point to Mass politicians as a beacon of honesty in an otherwise corrupt world.
The vast majority of the time, we don’t have crooks.
You can’t have it both ways. First you argue that Bump’s failure to find things that a competent auditor should find is no big deal, because we all have flaws. Then you argue that such bad behavior is extremely rare,
I’m not calling Bump a crook. But it seems to me that she isn’t doing a very good job. My sarcasm is directed at you because I find your arguments, far from being civil, to be extremely offensive. The patronizing way that you suggest that people getting public assistance should be grateful for the perpetual audits of welfare, because the Republicans would be worse–I don’t know who you and your politician friends think you are.
It was scott12mass that used the word crooks, not you (and he didn’t call out Bump specifically either). I think I do a pretty good job of not attacking people on this blog. I do think both that Bump is doing a reasonable job with her heart in the right place and that the opposite is rare generally. You may not agree with my views and that is certainly fine, but you can express such minus the tone.
When you talk to those same people in Indiana, Illinois, Minn, New Hampshire, Michigan, ask them if they think unconvicted crooks are running Wall Street and the business world.
That’s a given. The rules of government are supposed to keep them in check or at least level the playing field, for example track insider trading crimes. But when you have un-indicted co-conspirators sitting in seats of power, going to Beacon Hill or Washington and lining their own pockets it’s hard to be confident they’re looking out for us. But the businessmen aren’t preaching that they’re actually working for our best interests.
Supporters of markets will argue that markets and not government result in the best outcomes for all.
Not that is even close to being true, but Republicans and neoliberal Democrats believe it.
You are part of the problem. I said “all politicians fall short.” I did not say ‘all politicians are crooks.’ Your desire to go there right away suggests, at the least, an unquestioned cynicism that’s as detrminental to the body civic as outright criminality.
Yes, there are crooks in politics. However, the vast majority of people who are involved in politics are merely ordinary, run-of-the-mill, average humans, warts and all.
Gallup says I’m not the only one.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country’s government. This figure is up from two in three in 2007 (67%) and 2009 (66%).
While the numbers have fluctuated slightly since 2007, the trend has been largely stable since 2010. However, the percentage of U.S. adults who see corruption as pervasive has never been less than a majority in the past decade, which has had no shortage of controversies from the U.S. Justice Department’s firings of U.S. attorneys to the IRS scandal.
So is most of Trump’s administration honest but mis-guided? And the Republican House and Senate?
What do three in four Americans think ought to be done to lessen the perceived corruption in the country’s government?
Or, what do you personally think will lessen it?
Personally, I think that overturning Citizen’s United and putting real limits on campaign “contributions” would be a step in the proper direction. And no, I do not think that money is speech.
Personally I think the elimination of “white collar” prisons would go a long way toward increasing ethical law-abiding behavior in both government and big- business. Rob a bank with a gun or a pen and you’re in general population.
I bet things would get better.
More Americans than I’m comfortable with also perceive the planet to only be about 6000 years old – doesn’t make it true. Corruption is provable; it does not exist because a poll says so.
“Corruption is provable; it does not exist because a poll says so.”
Nor does corruption cease to exist if the Auditor doesn’t notice it–which is why I wrote this post in the first place.
Much of the comments here are pure speculation and unfair criticism. The public benefits fraud story did not come from an audit but from the work of the Bureau of Special Investigations whose only mission is to uncover fraud in public benefits, and the Bureau is also statutorily required to issue an annual report. Auditor Bump didn’t write the headline, which the Herald inaccurately characterized as in increase in public benefits fraud rather than the Bureau’s better work uncovering fraud.
As for auditing corporate welfare, Auditor Bump has created reports on business tax expenditures but, due to a state statute, is unable to access tax records which is where all the evidence resides — if you want her to do that, support her proposed legislation to give her that authority. Until then, there is nothing she can do about GE, Amazon, or any other tax give-a-way.
As for the MBTA, the Inspector General’s Office has its own special audit unit created just to audit the. Department of Transportation, which includes the MBTA. Don’t ask me why the Legislature felt a need to create this other audit unit, but a fair criticism would point this out.
It would have been a great headline for the Auditor if she had uncovered the State Police OT, but, given the size of our state government, no auditor could audit every aspect of state government. Yes, there are some smaller audits that don’t generate headlines, but the Office has to audit pieces of every area of state government every two years. The Office has a system to identify areas where there is the most risk, but that is still a work in progress.
Some people here obviously have an axe to grind with Auditor Bump, but people should examine the facts before jumping to unfounded conclusions.
[Disclosure: I previously worked for State Auditor Bump, but everything in this post can be documented.]
The State Police were caught getting overtime pay for which they did no work. That is a crime. The State Auditor is there to check the accuracy of records and to flag discrepancies for further investigation. That’s the Auditors job. That is to say, if there is a legitimate process of overtime, appropriate record keeping and payments exists.. and if everybody in the State Troopers outfit swore up and down they worked the overtime, presumably, this means, that if Troopers got the exact same amount of overtime pay for work they actually and for real did, then there would be no crime and why should the State Auditor flag that?
Is State Auditor Bump supposed to patrol the highways looking to see if the State Troopers are on the job?
People are upset that police get a lot of overtime and are conflating their anger with the actual crime, in this instance outright theft. Overtime is not a crime. It’s not even something to get that upset about. Collecting overtime for work not done IS a crime.
Yes, there is a crime, but there is also the issue that it went on for quite awhile with no one noticing. Its the “Hey, why are we paying so much overtime?” question that I would hope would have been asked by the auditor. The answer to the question might be legitimate: Some retirements and departures, we’re still training up new recruits, and there was a lot of need because of the blizzards” or maybe just “Maybe we should hire more troopers.” Or less so: “It turns out that F Troop are thieves.” The process of asking and answering the question is the function of the audit. The fact that it went on for many years means that no one paid attention, and I view that as in the auditor’s job description.
The failure of the State Police to make their pay records public was a huge red flag at a major state agency. It should be an embarrassment that they missed it for years. Also, there is no need to turn the mandated welfare fraud report into a photo op.
I think you are conflating two issues. The State Police who paid overtime for no work done and the Mass Transit Police (a sub division of the State Police?) who did not report their pay records accurately since, IIRC, 2011. I don’t believe that the State Police, as a ‘major state agency’ failed to make their pay records public.
Correction: it is the State Police Troop F, responsible for policing Logan Airport, Massport facilities (including the port of Boston) that has failed to file records accurately. Not the “Mass Transit Police.” So troop of the State Police, just not all of the State Police, as far as I know.
I absolutely rolled on the floor when I first saw that this unit is actually called “F Troop“.
How completely fitting.
No doubt the State Troopers tried to make their overtime shifts… they just went right at the rock that looks like a bear but missed the left at the bear that looks like a rock…
Please, Jane, not in front of the men.
You’re old.
I’m reminded of the similar excuses and hand-waving about how the massive frauds of state-run crime labs (benefiting prosecutors) went on for so long with nobody offering even a peep of concern. Not just one, but two. Not just one lab. Not just a year or two. Not just a handful of cases.
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve posted here.
It seems to me that you completely miss the point. The reality is that pervasive and widespread fraud has been going on in Massachusetts for more than a decade. ALL of our oversight is provided by Democrats.
That oversight has miserably failed. That’s not an “unfounded conclusion”, that’s a simple fact.
I think an entirely separate, but equally important, point has been made: between the various sub-auditors, special auditors, fiefdoms and inspectors… as well the various tying of hands by statute the CommonWealth, governed these last so many years by 3 convicted felons and one un-indicted co-conspirator, is running exactly as planned, corruption and all.
Sadly, I think you’re correct.
That, by the way, was the topic of my very first comment or post (I don’t remember which) on BMG, more than a decade ago.
I spoke of our “pervasive culture of corruption”, and said that the onus is on we who self-identify as Democrats to stop it.
It was not well-received then (here at BMG), in no small part because nobody had ever heard of me.
I think our state government is still dominated by a pervasive culture of corruption. Perhaps not as bad as it was, but still pervasive. My take is that Boston city government is the same.
One of my first impressions of Martha Coakley as Attorney General is her contemptuously dismissing (with cynical laughter) the suggestion that the systematic destruction of emails by the Mayor’s office was the other half of the liquor-license bribery racket that snagged Diane Wilkerson.
Was ANYTHING ever done about the pension-and-disability mill being operated by well-connected lawyers, doctors, and “lobbyists”?
My clear impression at the time was that the various “oversight” branches were carefully looking the other way at all those things.
I remember that post and remember agreeing with it. All the more reason to hold our own party’s feet to the fire on this blog.