Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio released a report this week that her office’s Bureau of Special Investigations had uncovered more than $2.5 million in public benefit fraud over the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. The announcement from the first-term Democrat comes as the Trump Administration continues to publicize its aggressive efforts to audit the federal government. Through the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency – run by the unelected billionaire Elon Musk – the Republican White House has been eager to tout cuts to national agencies. This week, it was reported that the department’s largest single line item cut of $8 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE was misrepresented, and it in fact valued at $8 million. WAMC spoke with DiZoglio about her office’s most recent findings about fraud in Massachusetts as well as how her auditing efforts compare with the Trump Administration’s.
DIZOGLIO: I was born to a 17-year-old single mother, I grew up housing insecure, and really, myself, benefited from the generosity of others in our community and also social supports that were offered and extended to families like mine. I very much support safety net services and ensuring that families who are in need have access to opportunities to obtain essential services if they themselves are unable to obtain such services, such as those medical treatments that are necessary, food, and other necessities in order to live with a standard of dignity. Some folks are trying really hard, but are still unable to make ends meet, and that's why those social safety nets do exist for our neighbors. Now, it is important that we, as well, alongside of providing those safety net services, ensure that folks are not taking advantage of such benefits, and that the folks who are truly in need of those services are actually the ones who are benefiting from those services and from those programs that we are investing into- And the Bureau of Special Investigations in the auditor's office exists to help to root out the waste, the fraud, and the abuse in these important programs, so that those who are truly in need are the ones who are receiving services. And they, in the first quarter of 2025, they actually found that there was over $2.5 million in public benefit fraud, and were able to highlight the different challenge areas that warrant attention and that warrant some enforcement and recovery of funds to make sure that, again, we're keeping those dollars in the areas where there is true need.
WAMC: What areas of the commonwealth's government were you looking into when it comes to these benefit frauds? Break it down for us- What were the different silos you investigated?
Our team looked at the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and identified over $1.5 million in fraud, over $500,000 in fraud in Medicaid, Department of Early Education and Care, we found over $300,000 in fraud, Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children – very important, very, very important – found over $100,000 in fraud, emergency aid to the elderly children and disabled in our communities, found nearly $30,000 in fraud, and then found a few thousand dollars in fraud as well regarding personal care attendants in the commonwealth. So, we highlighted these concerns in our report. And in the Bureau of Special Investigations, we do have folks working to uncover individual cases of fraud and conduct investigations into allegations that are sent to our office about folks who are allegedly committing fraud and stealing from those in need, stealing from the disabled, stealing from the elderly, who are the ones who are qualified under these programs to receive these benefits, and we can't do that good work without you continuing to call our Bureau of Special Investigations and highlight areas where you think folks may be engaging in this type of behavior and committing fraud. And I encourage folks to reach out to my office through our hotline, if need be, to let us know if you have cases where you believe fraud exists and someone is engaging in inappropriate or illegal activity in this way. We do have a hotline where you don't have to leave your name or anything like that, you can speak with somebody from our office, and it's right on our website at mass.gov/auditor where you can report these instances of fraud, and our team will engage in an investigation.
Now, let's go inside that kind of investigation. When the Bureau of Special Investigation sets its sights on some of these tips or some of these agencies- Break it down for us. What kind of actual auditing goes on, the sort of the meat and potatoes of the entire operation? Describe that for us.
So, I mean, it's different for every case, individually based depending on what the circumstances are, regarding the investigations. But those investigators will look at all the documents, all the forms, all of the documents that are supposed to exist and be provided. They will look to ensure that folks who are claiming that they haven't worked, for example, actually didn't work, or that are claiming a certain income level actually have that income level. And they will find those discrepancies, and they will call it out, call the agency that awarded those benefits, inform the agency, and work with the agency to ensure that enforcement occurs and that recovery of those dollars, hopefully, then eventually occurs. It's important, Josh, to know that our office does not possess any enforcement abilities whatsoever. You probably have heard about that a lot more regarding the legislative audit where we do not have the ability to enforce the law and to make the legislature follow it. We conduct audits, we conduct investigations, and then we produce reports that shine a light on areas for improvement, and then can make a series of recommendations. But it is incumbent upon these agencies and these departments to actually follow the law, take the recommendations, and in circumstances like with our Bureau of Special Investigations, once we compile all of those documents, we put them together in a report and then we work with those agencies and many times with the attorney general's office to ensure that there is follow up and recovery of those funds, and those agencies are then responsible for recovering those funds.
Let me ask you this- Right now, we're hearing from the Trump administration a lot of noise about these recent efforts to conduct these sweeping audits of various federal undertakings. It sounds like what you're saying, auditing is sort of part of this democratic system, it's something happens regularly, it's baked into the cake- What are your thoughts on the meal that's being made out of federal audits right now given your experience on a day-to-day basis performing audits here in the commonwealth?
Yeah, great question. I'm so glad you asked it, because I have certainly been getting a lot of questions over the last few months based on what's happening at the federal level, and it's really important to understand that here in Massachusetts, the auditor of the commonwealth is not appointed by the executive branch. I am not, for example, appointed by the governor of the commonwealth like with what we’re seeing at the federal level, an appointment being made and then very serious decisions being made by that same department regarding cuts and other issues across the board that we're seeing the fallout from. In Massachusetts, we have a democratic system here where your auditor is elected by the people as the people's auditor, and your auditor does not answer to anyone but the people. And there's also a separation of powers that is really important to recognize. Here in the state of Massachusetts, there is a separation of powers that actually prevents your auditor from being able to make unilateral, sweeping decisions about policies, about budgetary items, because that is the role of the governor's administration, and that is the role of the state legislature, who does have the authority to vote on those decisions and make those decisions and execute changes to policies and to funding priorities, for example. We report here, kind of like public service journalism. We have the ability to shine a light on what we see and to identify gaps in the system and then to make some recommendations. But in our democratic system here in Massachusetts, those recommendations then go through review by the agency that we are making recommendations to, and it is their decision and the administration's decision what recommendations they choose to implement or don't choose to implement. If they think they can address the issue in some other way, they are welcome to make those changes as they see fit due to separation of powers here in Massachusetts.
You're saying that auditing itself is sort of nothing new, but the lack of accountability to a democratic process that we're seeing out of the Trump administration's efforts to audit, that is the contrast you're seeing with, say, Massachusetts.
We definitely need to see a democratic process exist, not an anti-democratic process exist.
While I have you on the line, State Auditor, I'd love to get an update on your ongoing back and forth over your legislative audit. Where do things sit in mid-February 2025 with your ongoing efforts to open the books of Beacon Hill?
So, at this point in time, we are daily sending a formal request to the Office of the Attorney General to assist us in our efforts to sue the legislature into compliance with the law. Unfortunately, the attorney general, while their office has been doing some really great work on other fronts, some of which we just spoke about, the office has unfortunately not taken any action to address our calls regarding the legislative challenges that we've been having with regards, in respect to this audit. We have been peppered with questions about why and how we want to conduct our audit. Those are issues for the Office of State Auditor to address. It's not under the purview of a separate constitutional office to dictate the work of another constitutional office, as we are all elected independently by the people, but the attorney general right now seems focused on requiring the Office of State Auditor to explain how and why we want to conduct our audit instead of being focused on enforcing the law as it is written. And that has presented a tremendous challenge for our office, because we are being presented with these stall tactics, not just from the legislature, but now, unfortunately, from the Office of the Attorney General. And the reason why I have concerns about this, Josh, is because it's not like the attorney general has supported us in the past. [Andrea Campbell has], unfortunately, actually supported the Senate President and the Speaker in the past against this audit and wrote a 17-page defense for why they originally didn't need to be audited. And out of that refusal to help us over a year ago to conduct the audit that I tried to conduct, the ballot question was born, and the reason why we even needed to go to the ballot was because the attorney general refused to help us when we originally tried to conduct this audit. Fast forward, we got this issue on the ballot. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life to help to run that campaign, and we were able to succeed thanks to so many of you who came out to vote on this issue, and we passed this ballot question with 72% of support after collecting over 100,000 signatures. And still, now what's happening is even though we have updated the law to very clearly state that this is a requirement, alongside of simply just demonstrating that this is the will of the voters and the people of Massachusetts to which we are constitutionally obligated to be accountable to, we still are receiving the exact same pushback that we received before we all went and voted for this to be clarified in law. And I need the support of the people of Massachusetts who want this audit to occur, who voted for this, to please contact not just your legislators – who are, unfortunately, not fans of the audit that we voted for and keep saying that they are, in their minds, complying to the best that it's possible to comply – but also call the Office of the Attorney General, because it is within the power of the Office of Attorney General to enforce the law, and unfortunately, until the AG chooses to enforce the law, lawmakers can keep breaking the law for as long as they choose to do so. The Attorney General's Office is the only constitutional office with the authority to enforce that law and to make sure that the law is followed. So, it's really important folks continue to call me to ask what I'm planning to do about their refusal to follow the law. And I have to keep reminding people, we need to get the attorney general's support for the people on this, because unless she's willing to stand up for us on this, they can break the law for as long as they choose to.
