Daryl Purpera, CPA, CFE and the former Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA) from 2010 to March 2021, was recently interviewed by the State Society of Louisiana CPA’s with an article titled “Better Information, Better Louisiana”. State taxpayers should read this article closely, especially considering the $405 million (LLA says “number is probably much higher”) of unemployment benefits the state sent to 100,000 ineligible people — and legislative leaders have called for fiscal reform to the $36 billion state budget that the Edwards Administration has proposed to increase again by $18 million.
Mr. Purpera, who has an accomplished career that includes chairing legislative committees, crafting legislation, testifying in both the U.S. House and Senate on Medicaid fraud — and who will now become pastor for the First Baptist Church of Central in Baton Rouge, made these parting comments that should cause concern for all taxpayers:
— “Medicaid was my greatest personal and professional challenge, as it had grown to 35% of the state budget in 2015 and would eventually crowd out other valuable services (and is at 45% today) — and a huge issue was the level of error and fraud which the GAO had estimated to run about 10%.” Today, Medicaid is now $16 billion of the state budget — meaning fraud could be $1.6 billion every year. Determined to fix this staggering problem, not only for Louisiana but also other states, Mr. Purpera “made major changes that have resulted in savings, and other state auditors also made changes in their states — but several of these positive changes were later reversed”, and in Mr. Purpera’s opinion, “this was just not good government.”
— “Once COVID hit, any previous appetite for reducing the improper payment rate seems to have disappeared in favor of paying out fast and furious even if that means reducing controls and increasing the rate of improperly paid taxpayer monies.”
— “My most memorable and rewarding experience when I and several colleagues uncovered and investigated the biggest fraud case I have ever known of in the Louisiana government (over $15 million) involving the purchase of voting machine parts and resulted in the indictments of 21 individuals including the elected secretary of the Department of Elections.”
Louisiana, and the federal government, are spending money today that is “just not good government.”
Steve Gardes is a certified public accountant (CPA) and certified valuation analyst (CVA) with over 40 years of public accounting experience.
- Log in to post comments