{"id":620,"date":"2026-10-30T13:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetheolowgen.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2026-10-30T13:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:58:22","slug":"they-gave-the-fraud-twenty-months-and-called-it-taking-fraud-seriously-washingtons-state-auditor-documented-2-3-million-in-public-money-lost-to-fraud-in-fiscal-2025-a-more-than-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetheolowgen.com\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"THEY GAVE THE FRAUD TWENTY MONTHS AND CALLED IT TAKING FRAUD SERIOUSLY | Washington\u2019s state auditor documented $2.3 million in public money lost to fraud in fiscal 2025 \u2014 a more than 300% jump over the prior three-year average, on 54% more investigations, in a state where her investigators have watched small towns go to the bank and find $294 \u2014 and Gov. Bob Ferguson answered with a new Chief Fraud Prevention Officer paid for out of \u2018existing resources,\u2019 a workgroup of his own cabinet agencies with until June 30, 2027 to write a framework, and a bill to let private whistleblowers do the suing for a cut, because \u2018Washington takes fraud seriously\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They gave the fraud twenty months and called it taking fraud seriously. I know the sentence. It is the one a government says when its own auditor has just handed it a number with a percent sign the size of a barn door and it needs, by the end of the business day, to look like it is moving. You do not fix anything by the end of the business day. You create something. A title. A workgroup. A framework with a due date far enough away that the people who signed the order may be in different jobs when it arrives. Back at the You Know Who Post, in a cardigan that cost more than a small town\u2019s bank balance, I wrote the approving headline for this kind of morning more times than I can count. \u2018State Steps Up.\u2019 Nobody ever asked what the state stepped onto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the record. Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy\u2019s office said Oct. 27, 2026, that in fiscal year 2025 it conducted 54% more fraud investigations than before and documented a more than 300% increase in the amount of public funds lost, to $2.3 million, compared with the previous three-year average \u2014 and that is only what her investigators caught. \u201cThe single best defense against fraud is a strong set of checks and balances inside government programs,\u201d McCarthy said, adding that her office and others \u201chave identified too many programs launched without the proper controls in place and too many governments giving unchecked authority to a single person, leading to losses, questioned costs and fewer services available.\u201d Her office has run 21 internal-controls workshops since 2024 for representatives of about 150 local governments, and this year created a director-level Special Investigations Division. Its director, Brandi Pritchard, told TVW\u2019s The Impact what that looks like on the ground: the town of Cusick, she said, keeps an average bank balance of $200,000 to $300,000, \u201cand all of a sudden they go to the bank and they have $294 to their name.\u201d The same day, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed an executive order creating the state\u2019s first Chief Fraud Prevention Officer, covering health and human services programs at the Health Care Authority and the departments of Health, Social & Health Services, Labor & Industries and Children, Youth & Families. The governor\u2019s office says he \u201cintends to implement this work using existing resources.\u201d The order also creates a Public Funds Fraud Prevention & Accountability Workgroup of his cabinet agencies, co-chaired by his own office and the Office of Financial Management, which has until June 30, 2027 \u2014 twenty months \u2014 to produce a statewide framework and to make recommendations on, among other things, a public-facing dashboard. And he will ask the Legislature to expand Washington\u2019s Medicaid-only False Claims Act to all false claims against the state, enforced, his office says, \u201csolely through private individuals\u201d who would collect a percentage of whatever the court awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the defense, and it is not nothing. \u201cWashington takes fraud seriously,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cAs we continue to face challenging state budgets and devastating cuts from the federal government, it is more important than ever to protect every dollar.\u201d McCarthy, who is not his employee, applauded. Twenty-five states have full False Claims Acts and Washington is one of five with only a Medicaid version; closing that gap is a real thing. Fine. Then read the shape of it. The losses are counted by the auditor, an independently elected office whose own investigators keep describing small governments where one person held the checkbook. The response is a new coordinator over five of the governor\u2019s own agencies, funded with no new money, plus a committee of those same agencies, co-chaired by the governor\u2019s office, whose framework is due after the next legislative session has come and gone. The state that launched programs without controls will now write a framework about controls, and grade it. And when it finally does reach for teeth, it does not hire them: it lets a private person sue on the state\u2019s behalf and keep a cut, which is the state\u2019s way of admitting it would rather pay a commission than do the job. I hate that I find that the most honest line in the order. The bureau does not trust the bureau either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deb was treasurer of the church council for six years and says the rule was two signatures on every check and nobody, including Pastor, got the checkbook overnight. Buck says he would have taken the fraud job using existing resources, and that his existing resources are a pickup and a flashlight. I love them. They are seasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaking fraud seriously\u201d is the alibi. The twenty months are the story. Sit with them until they confess. A state that just watched its documented losses more than quadruple has answered with the cheapest things a government can make \u2014 a title, a committee and a deadline \u2014 and a plan to outsource the suing. Maybe the framework will be excellent. I hope it is; Cusick deserved better than $294. But seriousness is measured in controls installed, not officers named. The cardigan stays. Fill the notebook. Then ask your legislator, out loud, before the session starts: how much of the $2.3 million has come back, what does the fraud officer cost if it isn\u2019t new money, and what exactly is supposed to stop the next one-signature checkbook between now and June 30, 2027?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n