Note: JJ is going to treat this story somewhat differently. There is a bunch of good stuff to cover in the report but if it is all, well, stuffed into one post, eyes will glaze. JJ is going to dissect the report section by section over the next few days where it is more manageable to read while delivering quality information.
State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement yesterday.
Today State Auditor Shad White announced the release of “Project Momentum,” the largest audit of waste in Mississippi government in decades. Project Momentum identified around $335 million in recurring waste across thirteen state agencies.
“I was encouraged to see President Trump announce recently that if elected, he would appoint Elon Musk to lead a government efficiency commission to help eliminate fraud and waste in the federal government,” said State Auditor Shad White, “We’re doing the same thing right here in Mississippi with Project Momentum.”
Project Momentum comes on the heels of several other audits conducted by the Office of the State Auditor over the last five years of agencies like the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Division of Medicaid—audits that also identified tens of millions of dollars in savings on process improvements, heightened eligibility screening, etc. The Office of the State Auditor brought in national experts from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to help conduct this audit. BCG has helped reform numerous broken state governments around the country and used best practices and experience from around the nation for this project.
Some of the savings highlighted from Project Momentum include:
- IT contracts that Mississippi pays more for than similarly sized states
- Agencies owning too many vehicles that are underutilized
- Mississippi government spending more on insurance on state properties than even Florida
- State office buildings with space that never gets used
- Top-heavy agencies with too many employees
- Too much money spent on administrative costs in our K-12 school system compared to other states in the South
- $1.3M per year in savings if we sold the state plane
“I believe that Project Momentum is the most important project we will do in my time as State Auditor, because, if we take a chain saw to all this fat, it will make government leaner and smarter for decades to come,” said State Auditor Shad White.
“We never would have been able to finish this project without the help of Governor Tate Reeves and his agency heads that actively helped us identify these improvements,” White added.
Project Momentum can be found on the State Auditor’s website by clicking on the “Reports” tab and searching “momentum.”
Kingfish note: Posted below are the Power Point slides and the report.
43 comments:
My wife won't like the DOR portion of the report as our tax filer is old school, but having worked on the MARS/MARVIN project I don't see why we shouldn't just force everyone to eFile.
The biggest waste of money in the report is the cost of the report itself. This political stunt is one of the oldest and most expensive used repeatedly over the last 50 years by aspiring politicians.
Speaking of waste… what about the 2023 annual report and single audit? Instead of making up hypothetical numbers, using political catch phrases like “tax payers dollars”, and ignoring the fact that agencies are funded by other sources of revenue (self generated revenue and federal funds: which can not, will not, and never will be “tax payers dollars) let’s get your office more efficient. The 2023 annual report and single audit are extremely pass due. Does a politically driven report take precedence over reports that will inform the public of where their tax dollars are actually going?
I would like to see the audit report of the State Auditor's Office. Surely someone audits it!
All peanuts compared to freezing PERS and moving to a Defined Contribution plan, plus ending the COLA (13th check) immediately. Shad have the guts to recommend that?
Trey Lamar needs a swimming pool in the backyard, wonder if there is any TANF money left? Give old Farve a call.
Sorry Shad but your first comparison with Dell monitors vs other monitors shows just how little whoever put this together knows. Resolution is not the only or even remotely the best comparison point. I can get you a monitor of any resolution from a third world supplier that will be dirty cheap but guess what? The colors will not be great, the contrast will not be great, there will be ghosting from refresh issues, your eyes are going to hurt like hell everyday because the monitor will cause additional eye strain, and the components will be crap meaning that monitor may only last 6 months to a year. If you are in an area or building that doesn't have a good conditioned and stable power delivery then the monitor may even last less. Within a year you will more than likely be replacing that cheap monitor and purchasing another so congrats, you just spent more than what a decent monitor would have cost you. All the major companies selling monitors use the same panels from the same panel manufacturers and all ballpark their monitors about the same price. The only time you get something cheaper is by going with some off brand that is junk.
I worked in IT and did millions of dollars of purchasing when I was in the industry. I worked with great reps that if the MS ITS price was higher than their current public pricing they gave me current public pricing (or lower for bulk orders). If MS ITS price was lower than current public pricing I got it and then sometimes also got extra off for bulk orders. Any agency that isn't getting deals like that from company reps is working with a shady company and that is what the report really should focus on. The report should focus purely on contracts and "orders" with smaller companies that are really the ones ripping the tax payers off. For example where I worked we had an order come down from the top that we could only buy toner from this one office supply company in Jackson because they were "Jackson based and minority owned" their toner was double to triple the price of anywhere else and they were selling us third party refilled toner cartridges that leaked and screwed up the printers even worse. If Shad and his investigators were really out there talking to people and investigating instead of hiring firms to do broad studies for political clout they would know these things.
I doubt they are doing much though since I personally know multiple people that have reported violations to his offices from Hinds County BoS use of vehicles and vehicle markings and they have not showed up once to investigate those complaints.
Rock on!
IT contracts are nuts. Agencies shell out hundreds of thousands a year on them instead of investing in qualified staff's salaries and training. Contract dollars instead of salaried positions doesn't help PERS either. I've noted some momentum in this area over the last year so I'm in agreement with that portion so far.
9:42, agree. We didn't need to pay a consultant $2 million to tell us that we have too many vehicles, too much office space and top heavy agencies. I could have told Shad that for $20.
It baffles me that the Auditors Office prioritizes reports like these instead of the actual reports required by them through statutory law (where is the 2023 Single Audit report so we can see how our federal awards were distributed and monitored). How many of his staff were assigned to this while being woefully behind on the ACFR and Single Audit?
Also the entire preface of waning a government to operate like a business is a terribly misleading tactic. A business does not operate with the taxpayer in mind but for the sole purpose of the shareholders and owners. Government entities operate not on a ROI perspective but on addressing a need. “Ruthlessly eliminate or alter failing programs” means failing to address the needs of a vulnerable taxpayer (like some are seeing with children in education). While I am all for saving money and cutting waste, the majority of the recommendations require more spending to save some estimated amount that is not documented on how it was determined.
Also I don’t see where we appropriated funds to conduct this kind of audit on our government in their appropriations bill especially with how behind his office is with required reporting.
And if we want to talk about waste, let’s talk about his $200k accountancy fellowship program and politically charged reports made by his government accountability division.
While some see this as political posturing, this is actually a good thing. Think about it. What other office holder sees it as their duty to closely examine the state's finances and look for ways to reduce costs. Most politicians holding office have their mind fixed on other things, usually ways to spend more and get more.
Whats wasteful is Shad’s PR guy to be on Twitter all-day on the taxpayer’s dime.
@10:43 One of the big problems I have seen is that a lot of staff doesn't want to do anything extra. You can try and get all the extra training you want and large percentage of IT staff isn't going to bother with it unless they see a direct and quick benefit. State and local governments need to implement systems like what the private sector does where you receive raises and promotions based off gaining and holding industry certifications. I interviewed an IT Director for a state agency that was applying for a job where I worked once that had zero industry certifications and "they sat through the trainings the state did to get these certs but just didn't want to go take the tests to prove they knew the material".
They did not receive a job offer from us but if those are the type of people you have leading then why does anyone below them have a reason to do better?
While we are at it, let's talk about government grift. Rakin County Tax Collector(Car Tag Office) makes you keep up with your credit from a tag turn in when you sell your vehicle on a piece of paper. If you lose the piece of paper, then they get to keep your credit. It is 2024. You can't tell me there is not an electronic way to keep up with this? Shad needs to see just how much is kept from this process. But, just like Shad, she who occupies that office is a politician and it not out to help the people. Looking for the next opportunity and taking pictures at Grip N Grin and tonight at an event in Southern Rankin County.
https://www.peer.ms.gov/sites/default/files/peer_publications/rpt609.pdf
It's easy to publish these reports without getting the other side. Look at some of the approved state vendors. Nearly everything I buy I can get at a lower price from another vendor but I can't do the paperwork and posting to buy it before the sale/discount goes off and I'm not staffed to spend my whole day just doing the cya paperwork so Shad doesn't get involved. So, we keep buying stripped down equipment at a higher cost than fully equipped and Shad gets to keep using taxpayer dollars to write these reports and nothing gets done about saving taxpayer dollars.
https://www.peer.ms.gov/sites/default/files/peer_publications/rpt613.pdf
There are plenty more studies that already cover this
October 29, 2024 at 10:25 AM
Since when do you need IPS panels to do government work? It's not like they're using it for 3D or CAD work.
I was unaware that MDWFP owns a TV station.
10:51 You sir know what you are talking about! Assuming you used to work there?
Ole Shad and another of his publicity gimmicks! He gives lots of overly broad examples of potential savings without any details. I’ve already seen the response of several agency heads wondering why Ole Shad didn’t attempt to ask the agency personnel about these broad brush savings that Ole Shad paid a out of state contractor $1,000,000 + to come up with. Let’s wait & see how many of these pronouncements become actual net savings to the state.
Their Beech KingAir N30SM doesn't fly much, but when it does it mostly goes to/from Tupelo.
They fired you didn’t they?
Democrat Delbert would never have proposed a legislative look at streamlining or downsizing government without White producing this report.
Shad has never held a “real” job and wants all of us to listen to him and his expertise in how to run a business. He’s coming across very desperate to stay relative. He’s turned the Auditor’s office into a think tank that’s only helping him prepare for his next campaign.
Define 'real job'.
@1:05 PM must not have a job at all.
We paid 2 million for this report? Did PPRB approve this? Also, why is the Auditor's office missing from the cut recommendations?
11:42, 3D and CAD is quite common in government work. Lots of agencies use ArcGIS, which certainly qualifies as 3D, while MDOT, among others, uses CAD.
@1:30
Any job that is not:
1. Lawyer
2. Politician
3. Government worker who doesn’t carry a gun or hose.
Shad fails on all three.
This guy is focused on running for governor and nothing else. These "reports" are window dressing.
Ol' Shad been on that government tit his entire career. Now he wants to help us make it more efficient. Maybe ol' Shad could take a little less from the tit.
Breaking! Here it is..."All peanuts compared to freezing PERS and moving to a Defined Contribution plan, plus ending the COLA (13th check) immediately."
You don't know much about contract law, do ya Homer? Bottom feeders and surface thinkers are a dime a sardine can.
Future governor
Lawyer isn't a real job? Go figure. Hope you never need one of those slackers.
When it is all said and done, he won’t need this. He will be able to rail against the democrats controlling Washington.
Hey Shad, ignore the vocal haters on this blog - most of whom do not know what your job actually includes and does not include. Objectively, you are doing a great job pursuing the white collar criminals masquerading as public employees, auditing the various state agencies, calling attention to waste, and informing the public of your findings. When compared to your predecessor, you're doing an EXCELLENT job. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for breaking it down Kingfish.
Ditto, 4:53
Most of the whiners here would complain about Shad even if he announced he had discovered the secret to room temperature nuclear fission.
@3:05, so does Hosemann. Cheers!
I hope he runs against RINO Delbert for governor
3:26 anytime an elected official is doing something good, and part of what is his job, I don't care about his ambitions. This is not some empty 'report.' It's something we need in this state, and I don't see anyone else doing it.
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