Massachusetts auditor takes audit dispute to state’s highest court

A Democratic state auditor is taking Massachusetts legislative leaders, together with members of her personal celebration, to court docket after uncovering practically $12 million in alleged fraud in public help applications in an effort to implement a voter-approved audit regulation.

“What are they hiding? If there’s nothing to cover, open the doorways and let the solar shine in. Let’s do that audit,” Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio stated on “Saturday in America.”

DiZoglio, a Democrat and former member of each the Massachusetts Home and Senate, is submitting a criticism with the Massachusetts Supreme Court docket to implement a 2024 poll measure that approved her workplace to audit the Legislature. The measure passed with 72% help.

The authorized motion follows a report from the Massachusetts State Auditor’s Workplace that recognized practically $12 million in alleged fraud in varied public help applications in fiscal yr 2025 alone.

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State Auditor Diana DiZoglio speaks to reporters on the State Home in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 28, 2025. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald through Getty Photographs)

DiZoglio notified legislative leaders earlier this yr of her intention to conduct a efficiency audit, however stated Home and Senate leaders declined to supply the mandatory paperwork. She added that the legal professional basic declined to intervene.

“That is one thing that 72% of voters supported, and that crossed celebration traces,” she stated.

“You had progressive Democrats working with conservative Republicans. And primarily they stated they wished this audit executed.”

In line with the Auditor, Massachusetts is the one state within the nation the place the legislature, the governor’s workplace and the authorized system exempt themselves from the state’s public information regulation.

She claims the newly authorized audit authority would deliver long-sought transparency to taxpayer-funded knowledge, together with monetary receipts and state contracts.

“That is about transparency and accountability,” DiZoglio added.

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The Massachusetts Statehouse might be seen in Boston on January 2, 2019. (AP Photograph/Elise Amendola, File)

“It isn’t about whether or not you help the best or the left. It is about coming collectively and gaining access to paperwork that ought to be public.”

DiZoglio emphasised that rooting out fraud is important to defending public help applications for many who actually need them. She shared her personal background, saying she was born to a 17-year-old single mom who relied on applications like WIC earlier than turning into a nurse and getting again on her toes.

“Lots of people depend on these applications,” she stated. “However individuals who commit fraud have to be held accountable. We should root out that waste, fraud and abuse in order that these methods work correctly and individuals who actually need them can get these providers.”

Fox Information Digital reached out to the Massachusetts Legal professional Basic’s workplace for remark however didn’t instantly obtain a response.

Nonetheless, according to GBH Newsthe legal professional basic claims DiZoglio doesn’t have standing to file the lawsuit.

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“That is yet one more ploy to avoid my workplace’s required approval and won’t get her any nearer to controlling the Legislature,” she stated in an announcement.

“This submitting just isn’t about imposing the regulation. To implement the regulation, it will reply my workplace’s clear questions, together with how the privileges given to the Legislature in our state Structure practically 250 years in the past have an effect on its energy to police the Legislature.”

DiZoglio stated she hopes the state’s highest court docket will in the end facet with voters.

“The Structure is there to guard the individuals, not the politicians,” she stated.