Senator's bill targets government waste

From today's Capital Times:

By Anita Weier
January 4, 2006
Fraud, waste and mismanagement in state government are the targets of a bill authored by state Sen. Julie Lassa. The bill would create a toll-free telephone line in the Legislative Audit Bureau to receive reports of questionable activities.

Lassa, D-Stevens Point, said the identities of those who called the hotline would be confidential.

"Their ID would be protected, but a record of the complaint would be created," she said. That report would be an open record unless an investigation is going on, Lassa added. "If the Audit Bureau finds something, they would report to the Legislature or appropriate law enforcement authorities."

Fourteen other states have established this type of hotline, including Ohio, where 639 reports were received in the first six years of the program and $16.1 million was recovered for the state treasury as a result.

Lassa, a member of the Legislature's Joint Audit Committee, said that the committee has received some "pretty terrible" audit reports in recent years, such as a W-2 audit in Milwaukee County, and that state workers and organizations that receive state funds should be accountable.

The nonpartisan Audit Bureau would be best qualified to manage such a line and choose which reports were worth pursuing, she said.

Former Gov. Scott McCallum vetoed a similar from the state budget, Lassa said.

She added that she introduced a bill during the last session that would have accomplished the same thing, but some legislators were concerned that the new responsibility would take away from other duties of the busy Audit Bureau.

"It would be very important that we develop a protocol for the circumstances of an investigation," State Auditor Janice Mueller told the committee. "We would not handle discrimination or wrongful termination, and there are already hotlines for insurance and unemployment compensation fraud."

It would also have to be clear that the hotline would be for state issues, not for problems in local governments, Mueller added.

The committee did not vote on the bill Tuesday, but Lassa said after the hearing that she is hopeful that it will be enacted during the coming legislative session. Legislators of both parties have signed on as co-sponsors.

"It is important that people feel their state government is accountable to them," she said.

Posted by Lucy Mathiak at January 5, 2006 4:14 PM
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