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Date: 12/6/2022
SPRINGFIELD – State Auditor Suzanne Bump said it was more important to her and her office to provide information to the Legislature about whether or not state agencies and programs were fulfilling their missions rather than playing to the headlines and playing political gotcha.
Bump looked back at her 12 years as auditor during an interview on Focus Springfield’s “Government Matters” program on Nov. 30. She was in Western Massachusetts as part of her “goodbye tour.”
As noted on the website for the Office of State Auditor, she is, “the chief accountability officer for state government in Massachusetts and its residents. Her office conducts audits, investigations, and studies to promote accountability and transparency, improve performance, and make government work better. Since 2011, her office has identified over $1.3 billion in improper or questionable spending and missed savings opportunities.”
Bump, an attorney, served in the Legislature and as secretary of labor in the Deval Patrick Administration before deciding to run for auditor.
Recent reports from the office include one that “criticizes the Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS) for lacking policies and procedures to ensure it is identifying and serving women veterans through its Women Veterans Network (WVN) operations. Under state law, DVS is responsible for assisting and advising veterans’ services officers (VSOs) on benefits and services for which veterans may be eligible. In partnership with VSOs, DVS provides guidance to veterans and their families to determine their eligibility for federal, state, and local programs, benefits and additional resources. The Women Veterans Network had only identified approximately 6 percent of the approximately 25,000 women veterans living in Massachusetts. The audit examined the period of July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2021.”
Bump explained her office does not do financial audits but performance audits. She explained the last audit done on the program concerning outreach “was not good.”
“Having an ongoing connection with veterans is really important for the services they need,” Bump said. She noted that women vets are the fasting growing group veterans and they are much more likely to be experiencing homelessness because of abusive relationships or failure to be able to adjust to civilian life or sustaining work. Women vets also suffer from abuse they had in both civilian and military life.
“There was not the kind of outreach you would expect,” she said. “It represented a real disservice.”
While the audit did receive some media attention, more importantly it received attention from the Legislature, Bump explained. Some lawmakers were “vastly disappointed” at the situation.
“We didn’t sensationalize it. We didn’t hang the people out to dry [who] weren’t doing a good job. That’s not the point for me for an audit. For me the point of an audit to identify ways the state government can improve delivery of services in the most efficient and effective way possible.”
She added she sees audits as tools to make government better rather than weapons to bring someone down.
“That’s a choice that I made. It means we’ve done a lot of wonderful things in the office that people will never know about we’ve done,” she said.
A recent audit looked at the east-west divide and “how poorly the state was doing particularly in meeting transportation needs, broadband needs, and the like.”
“So, we do these two things. We do legal analysis and we do these in-depth reports,” she explained.
Another recent audit dealt with state funded mandates and whether or not the state is helping municipalities with the funding to fulfill them. There was a $1.2 billion gap as discovered by the audit.
“Again, it attracted some public notice, but more importantly it attracted the attention of the Legislature,” she said.
The incoming Healy administration has been notified of the findings so it could write a proposed budget with this situation in mind, Bump added.
“The Legislature has be held responsible as well as the rest of the government,” she stressed.
She said for the most part members of the Legislature have been open to the findings of the report and willing to take action. Her experience as member of the General Court helped in the relationships between the two bodies.
To read recent audit reports go to https://www.mass.gov/orgs/office-of-the-state-auditor and to see the complete interview go to www.focusspringfield.com.