I'm missed this 2010 story. As events and exposure of fraud is in the news I'm sharing this with readers today.
Since I wrote a lot about child day care from the article:
"Another described “chains” of state-subsidized child care providers who are paid to watch the children of other state-subsidized child care providers."
"Thomas Shapley, director of communications for DSHS, said the department is vigilant in its efforts to curb fraud. “We already take fraud very seriously, and we encourage anyone to report fraud through their supervisor or through a fraud hot line,” he said. The DSHS website’s fraud hotline has instructions on reporting fraud and downloadable complaint forms, he noted."
Like the State Whistle Blower Program they may encourage reporting, but failed to mention it won't get investigated.
Shapley further said to the Columbian: “We take fraud seriously,” Shapley said. “Bring us names, bring us phone numbers, and we’ll pursue allegations of fraud, but we can’t do anything without names.”
As a former DSHS social worker I not only gave them a name, phone number and address, but had documents they could review. I couldn't get them to agree to look at the documentation I had. The fraud investigator said it didn't matter to them if licensing laws were being violated. If the day care provider had 21 children in care with no assistant and she was only licensed for 12, it didn't matter to them. It only mattered if the 21 were not there. He didn't care that she kept her attendance parent sign in sheet in pencil and that her records were not complete; and that she reported income to one government agency to get medical benefits that was not accurate because she did not report her child care subsidy payments.
If the fraud issue is that big then how can the legislature allocate dollars to those government agencies?
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