No waste left in the budget to cut? Think again.

Another cry for performance audits

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has obtained the draft of a legislative audit reviewing the Developmental Disabilities Division (DDD) of DSHS. The audit was conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC). Audit results echoed the scope and type of the findings revealed in a report released last week by State Auditor Brian Sonntag.

The JLARC report revealed that:

• Up to one third of the children receiving DD services are not eligible for those services.
• Duplicate DD benefit payments have been made, and the checks and balances DSHS said were in place to catch such errors are nonexistent.
• Nearly half of the individuals reported as “field-based staff” by DSHS are not working in that capacity, yet DSHS requested additional funds for more field staff.
• The DD program has no performance indicators to help determine whether funds are being spent appropriately and efficiently.

JLARC’s report states, “These errors lead us to question the credibility of information that DDD supplies to the legislature.” The Committee is conducting its investigation of the DD services at the request of lawmakers who were curious about the large budget increases requested by DSHS last year for the program.

The DD budget for 2001-03 is $1.2 billion, but without a thorough and comprehensive performance audit, it is impossible to determine how much of that money is being wasted or misappropriated.

Lynn Harsh, Executive Director of the Olympia-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation, commended the findings of JLARC, but said more is needed.

“We appreciate the fine work of the JLARC auditor, but if lawmakers are serious about making government as efficient as possible they need to allow our State Auditor to conduct comprehensive performance audits,” said Harsh. “That is what citizens hired an independent State Auditor to do.”

Comprehensive performance audits provide an independent look at all program expenditures through the lens of an agency’s mission and goals to ensure that services are reaching the people who need them most in the most efficient way possible.

In a briefing paper published last month, JLARC identified five other problem areas in the state budget. The paper can be viewed at: http://jlarc.leg.wa.gov

“JLARC’s findings mirror the same problems discovered by the State Auditor's report: improper screening for eligibility, duplicate payments, inappropriate use of staff, and lack of performance indicators,” said Harsh. “Before asking taxpayers for more money, lawmakers need to demand that the Governor clean up this mess. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars wasted.”

Contact: Lynn Harsh, Executive Director, (360) 956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org