As your State Auditor, I have a three point plan to improve state government operations and to save taxpayer dollars. Ohio’s taxpayers can’t afford to pay higher taxes so we have to get more out of the tax dollars we are already collecting. The best way to do that is to root out fraud, waste and abuse in government spending, and as a CPA, I am prepared to do just that. My three point plan includes;

Medicaid Audits

We need to develop a comprehensive approach to auditing the state’s Medicaid expenses. While in the legislature I introduced a bill to give the Auditor that authority and according to the Ohio Commission to Reform Medicaid report, hundreds of millions of tax dollars could be saved just by auditing these expenses. Let me repeat that, “hundreds of millions of tax dollars.” That money could be invested in education or job creation.

Internal Audits

We need to streamline the internal audit function of state government to make them independent of the bureaucracy and the administration. My proposal will create a pathway for internal auditors to report unusual items and misspending without fear of retribution. This works in the private sector and it’s time state government adopted similar methods to improve accountability in how it spends your tax dollars.

Internal Controls

Because internal controls are the antidote for fraud we will implement a program for interim testing of internal controls in state agencies. This will help safeguard tax dollars, prevent fraud, help maintain accurate and reliable accounting data, and promote operational efficiencies.