Wisconsin’s Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Elimination Task Force has issued its third quarterly report of 2012. The report includes citizen suggestions and highlights state actions that have helped to save money and make government more efficient.

During his State of the State Address in January 2012, Gov. Walker urged citizens and state employees to submit suggestions for more efficient government operations. Each quarter since then the Task Force has issued a report highlighting these suggestions and other efforts to curb government waste.

The latest report, covering July-September 2012, details the 125 submissions the Task Force received from the public and state employees. Of those, 88.8% have been resolved. The most common single subject of the suggestions relate to public assistance programs.

Report Highlights:

• The 125 submissions are much higher than the 22 received in the second quarter of 2012.
• By obtaining better data and cross match capability, state agencies can better identify fraud within state programs. The Department of Health Services, Office of Inspector General is exploring the use of this technology to better locate and prevent fraud within public assistance programs.
• A Task Force member suggested state agencies review how they are using toll-free services to see if efficiencies could be realized. This report outlines how a state agency did this and is saving money while maintaining service. Also, options to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands annually in other agencies while maintaining and even expanding public service are included.
• The Department of Health Services, Office of Inspector General is reporting an average of $1.2 million in fraudulent public assistance benefits being saved or recouped over the last 8 months. That is a return of over $22 per dollar spent on the recipient fraud unit.

Additional suggestions can be submitted to the Task Force on this website: www.bestpractices.wi.gov.