According to an official audit made public Tuesday, Massachusetts spent nearly $2.4 million on welfare benefits to 1,160 recipients who were either dead or ineligible over the past two and a half years, the Boston Globe reported.
“It pains all of us in the auditor’s office to think that the program’s integrity is not being maintained,” State Auditor Suzanne Bump said. “The most frustrating finding is that we were able to identify so many patterns of activity that could have raised suspicions, but did not.”
The audit found that some people received benefits using the social security numbers of dead residents.
"Clearly there has not been sufficient priority placed on preventing fraud in that agency," Bump said. "Fraud prevention has to be a major focus of any government benefit program. It clearly was not a major focus."
According to WCVB, the Department of Transitional Assistance said that many of the problems highlighted in the report had already been addressed by a March plan to prevent public assistance abuse.
“I am going to do whatever it takes to restore the credibility of the department and to make sure tax dollars are going to be used as intended,” acting agency director Stacey Monahan said. “One dollar in fraud is too much.”
