Colorado government
I laughed reading the headline about the state employee ripping off the state for millions (“Data glitch set off alarm bells,”
Give me a break!
Large thefts like this occur because some employees are crooked and their employers are lax in employment practices like background checks or other hiring procedures, protecting sensitive data, and/or not locking up the cash box. Crediting a computer glitch, or touting a new system that could detect fraud, misses the point completely.
Indeed, bigger crimes against Colorado taxpayers are the recently purchased computer systems that don’t work and the previous administration’s dismantling of the civil service system
The real crooks are politically appointed department heads swearing they must buy new computer systems or their agencies will be unable to function. Meanwhile, state employees, who really make the system work, are no longer hired and promoted based on merit, but on how well they cheer for new computer systems.
Likewise, it is meritless to say a computer system helped expose a fraud because it didn’t work. (Co-workers detected the fraud in this case, but has the chief selling point for a new system boiled down to “It doesn’t work”?)
I think voters elected the new governor partly because they were tired of
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I'll have to take your word on that Guy. But "government" and "wasteful spending" is synonomous.
Posted by LB on May 20, 2007 05:43 AMWhat this state needs is a wholesale investigation of the interference and undue influence of private mercantile interests in the legitimate government's and public's interests.Can anyone really believe that the Robert Wood Johnson Foudation's grants to government agencies comes with no strings attached. Likewise, can anyone accept that the American Lung Association's, also a RWJF grantee, position on the Colorado Department of Health's sub agency,STEPP, is any thing other than an attempt to promote the mercantile interests of the granter. Why does STEPP do press releases, that are the same, almost word for word, lies the American Cancer Society has been caught in their tobacco control propaganda campaign and the defamation of character they used in Ohio smoking ban campaign. They are being sued. The Ohio State Patrol has verified they told lies about alleged threats of physical violence which included lies about the OSP's involvement.
There is more influence and interference in the legislature, agencies and depatments of the Colorado State Government by private mercantile interests than may ever be known unless the public demands it. It does not matter if you smoke or not. This is a much bigger thing than that and strikes at the very heart of legitimate goverment representation of the interests of their taxpaying constituents which elected them to office and the trust they have and rightly expect in open, honest and truthful government.
Posted by Allen Campbell on May 20, 2007 07:32 AMI would ask Mr. Santo, WHAT "Civil Service" system? 'Tain't neither, and never has been.
In one form or another, Colorado has always been a "spoils State"; together with the fundamental practice of "once in" - by appointment from what has always been, essentially, the Party in power - it takes death, retirement, or a dynamite blast to get one out. (Or a change in Party affiliation when registering at the polls.) And the operative mandate for promotion or preference is, simply, "Cover your own ass; and don't make waves." There's always another loyal Party hack waiting in the wings to fill the job.
Posted by Old Grouch on May 20, 2007 09:53 AMYou wrote:
"Large thefts like this occur because some employees are crooked and their employers are lax in employment practices like background checks or other hiring procedures, protecting sensitive data, and/or not locking up the cash box."
Well, good management practices take into account that there might be crooked employees in an organization, and plan for that eventuality..
Good management practices go well beyond background checks and protecting sensitive data. They go right to the core of how an organization does business.
Good management practices don't necessarily "lock the cash box," as you put it, but make it more difficult to get a hand into it and make it easier to discover when someone does.
Good computer systems do nothing more than implement good management practices. You can't have one without the other.
I agree that it's premature to use this event as a sales pitch for a new jillion-dollar computer system. If it was bought right now, it wouldn't help. The reason? In my opinion, the Department of Revenue has lax management practices in place. A new computer system bought right now would simply implement more of the same ineffective management. We don't need it. We need a top-down overhaul before we need new software.
With decent management, this never would have happened, with or without the computer. The Department of Revenue has a lot of work to do.
When it can implement effective internal controls on paper, maybe then it will be ready for new software. But not a minute sooner.
Posted by Ralphie on May 20, 2007 09:39 PM