Needed: State Inspectors General

Today, most crimes are state-level, including public corruption. While the federal government is larger, the propensity for “waste, fraud, and abuse” is higher across state governments, which have less oversight, fewer investigations, and often no Inspector Generals (IGs). Needed are State IGs.

As observers watch Minnesota’s welfare fraud scandal explode, with 78 indictments across 14 state agencies, up to nine billion dollars in fraud, the question arises: Why was this not caught before so much money was stolen, so many innocent people hurt, by this Democrat government’s corruption?

The answer, for starters, is that the federal government – FBI, Department of Justice, HHS Inspector General, and congressional oversight investigators – were not aware of the fraud. The fraud surfaced only because Medicaid – federal tax dollars – were implicated, triggering the investigation.

But what happens when the fraud being perpetuated – as in so many states – involves state dollars? Compounding the problem of finding fraud, what happens when the state’s fraud, as in Maine and California, is perpetuated by a one-party Democrat-controlled state, a Democrat attorney general?

The answer is that, in such cases, unless a federal nexus exists, bringing in the FBI, Department of Justice, or a federal Inspector General, the chances of catching state fraud are highly diminished.

So, what is the answer? While honest government is the real answer, voters turning corrupt politicians out, these same one-party states have a record of interfering in electoral activities, injecting partisan, hard-to-catch, even objectively unconstitutional influences into the process.

Missing, at least from this longtime federal investigator’s perspective, is the equalizing influence of having independent state-level IGs – optimally one for statewide investigations, plus subsidiary IGs within each leading state agency, operating independently, each able to legally investigate fraud.

Historically, the federal government did not have IGs until 1978, when the “Inspector General Act” was passed, allowing each major department to have an internal investigative arm either appointed by the president or the agency head, assuring whistleblowers had a voice, and operations avoided fraud.

As a matter of practice, the IGs – while their reports are not always actionable, may require Justice investigation, and can be inaccurate – are a valuable “first look” at possible problems, based on forensic audits, program evaluations, due diligence, examination of contractors and programs.

Without their early warning, waste, fraud, and abuse can grow. The principal value of IG reviews is preemption, stopping something before it becomes serious, and deterrence, stopping bad practices.

At the federal level, the government currently has 72 IGs, often dispatched to chase federal tax dollars into state administration, as in Minnesota and in Maine, where the DHHS IG just found $46 million in fraud within the autism programs underwritten by federal Medicaid dollars.

Unfortunately, only 11 states presently have state IGs or within leading departments. Notably, Minnesota and Maine do not have such IGs. Had Minnesota and Maine had these investigative officers, much of the fraud might have been discovered early, prevented, addressed, and deterred.

The reality is, as government becomes more complex, preempting waste, fraud, and abuse will be far more economical than trying to track down and reclaim lost, stolen, and wasted state tax dollars.

Perhaps more to the point, just as federal taxpayers – all of us – deserve hawk eyes on how federal money is spent, state taxpayers – all of us – deserve those hawk eyes on state-level spending. 

Bottom line: Reality is that Minnesota and Maine are poster children for what not to do, how, and why fraud must be stopped early, prosecuted, and deterred. They are one-party Democrat states that have become used to misusing, wasting, and abusing state taxpayers. That has to stop. Appointing one or more state Inspector Generals would help restore trust in states where trust is now at rock bottom.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!