State Auditor Brian Sonntag and his team have been busy.
The AP just reported the results of an audit of L&I:
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Department of Labor and Industries paid more than $600,000 in pension benefits to dead or otherwise ineligible claimants in the last fiscal year and lost more than $180,000 in equipment, including laptops, digital records and camcorders, according to a state audit released Friday.Also released today is the Auditor's report on the state Dept. of General Administration
In most areas, the Department complied with state laws and regulations and its own policies and procedures. However, we identified a condition significant enough to report as a finding:One vehicle supposedly received a tank fill-up of 40.7 gallons when the tank capacity is only 33 gallons. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 05, 2006 03:36 PM | Email This
• The Department did not have adequate internal controls in place to ensure gasoline purchased is for authorized purposes.
Fuel however gets the truck from to pts a, b, c, d. L&I is just useless overhead.
Stop talking about jacking minimum wage and start talking about the waste of money at L&I. This is over 20% of an employee's salary in many cases.
Does washington even allow employers to use private insurance over L&I? For some reason I thought Washington's is Stalin-istic and you have to use the state program over pvt insurance.
Fuel however gets the truck from to pts a, b, c, d. L&I is just useless overhead.
Stop talking about jacking minimum wage and start talking about the waste of money at L&I. This is over 20% of an employee's salary in many cases.
Does washington even allow employers to use private insurance over L&I? For some reason I thought Washington's is Stalin-istic and you have to use the state program over pvt insurance.
The all-powerful state employees union compels the state to retain these incompetents until they want to leave or until they are bumped upstairs to a more cushy job.
I am just so sick and tired of this kind of garbage. Any employee who defrauds the state should be out on their ear within hours with no references, no tenure, no benefits.
Posted by: Clean House on May 5, 2006 05:13 PMI wonder, with all of that lost equipment, how many paychecks will get docked. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they at least make people sign for the equipment in their offices. Things like laptops don't disappear on their own, so how many people will be held accountable for the stuff that's "missing" from their place?
What kills me is that some of my friends in the National Guard out of Buckley can't even get their guys to the right training before going to the desert because the state tells them there is no money to put them on active status. For those who don't know, that doesn't even include any travel or per diem, just base pay. The state can't afford to pay the NG their salary! And Fraudiore does a commercial about "honoring Washington's veterans." What a crock of sh!t she is. I really, truly can't wait for her to just go away.
Posted by: The Dude on May 5, 2006 05:44 PMI want my money back!!!!
Posted by: Michele on May 5, 2006 05:46 PMI wouldn't be suprised if she writes in a gas benenfit into the next contract to keep this from being and issue in the future. Now multiply this finding by every Federal,County and City agency with a motor pool. Have gas card, will travel. What a country!
Posted by: Smokie on May 5, 2006 05:54 PMThe only way to get the Gov. to do anything is expose it to the light of a performance audit - a good thing. If you think L & I was bad, wait until they get done with uncovering the waste at DSHS !
Posted by: kS on May 5, 2006 08:45 PMAs for the gas, many GA employees are involoved in work that requires the use of portable power equipment. Before the Ripofflicans barbeque the front line workers again, check to see the actual function of the vehicle and it's operator.
What this State needs is legislation limiting the percentage of agency budgets that can be spent on mamagement salaries. It'll never get through the legislature because both parties use the cronie system to rule their underlings in state Government.
If you think a few gallons of gas is a problem, just wait unitl contractors take over building maintanance, repairs, and operations. The State had better start priting change order forms now, because eveything beyond the maintenance contract will be a change order.
As the Re[puiblican contractors lick their chops...
Posted by: Independent Voter on May 6, 2006 08:33 AMWhen in last two Decades in the State of Washington has a different party called the shots. I recall this Governor saying she was going to eliminate "1,000 mid-level managers" form state government. Has she done it? the nice thing about outside contractors, no matter which party you ascribe their polictical leanings to, is that you can fire them if they do not do the job. Unlike state union employees.
If the auditors office is so stupid as to not recognize the job desciption and equipment allocation of the individuals cited in the "findings" then perhaps we need a new auditor.
Bottom line is that after repeated "findings" in audits nothing is done to correct the actions. If the people in charge of enforcing fiscal discipline never have a consequence for not doing their job, nothing will change. Millions of dollars will be wasted or stolen each year.
Let's see if our Decades old Democratic controlled state government will aggressively clean out the thieves and cheats.
Why create a new set of rules, controls or guidelines if the employees and management refuse to follow the ones now in place? All you will be doing is adding more State Employees to staff oversight. A net loss to the taxpayers, again.
Posted by: Smokie on May 6, 2006 09:51 AMPerhaps this is why the Dems want felons to vote??!! There are plenty of potential felons working in government.....but they need them to vote so they can continue to steal from us whorkin' stiffs!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on May 6, 2006 01:29 PMThe Republicans would stack the offices with 80 to 100 K managers just as much as Homocrats do.
The working class has only the choice of which direction to be screwed from.
Posted by: Independent voter on May 6, 2006 07:49 PM