ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030053
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
AS GUBERNATORIAL initiatives go, the waste-and-fraud hot line established by former Gov. Doug Wilder in 1992 isn't likely to warrant more than a footnote in the chronicling of his accomplishments.
But it was a good idea, and a recent assessment of the program suggests it has worked as Wilder intended: giving state employees the means to blow the whistle anonymously on waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse that they see in state agencies without risking enmity or retribution from supervisors and co-workers who are guilty of one or all of the above.
According to a report from the state internal auditor's office, the hot line has led to a savings of about $1.3 million in taxpayers' funds. It also has led to some revised and improved policies for agency operations. And, yes, in more blatant cases of chicanery involving public funds or abuse of public position, it has resulted in some state workers being fired.
The money saved is no grand sum. But in its small way, the hot line helps sustain confidence in government accountability: an incalculable value.
And speaking of whistle-blowers, kudos to Thomas Van Auken of Chesterfield County, who recently proposed that Gov. George Allen abolish the Laboratory Services Advisory Board to which Allen had appointed Van Auken, a GOP activist and Allen supporter.
Nice, said Van Auken, to have a framed certificate of his gubernatorial appointment. But the advisory board has not met in the almost two years since he was named to it - in fact, had not met for several years before that. If an advisory body never meets, wrote Van Auken, it serves no purpose other than to ``provide a meaningless title as a reward to a political supporter.''
To his credit, Allen - before he had heard from Van Auken - had set in motion a study of state boards and commissions that have long outlived any usefulness they might once (if ever) have had. The study thus far has turned up fewer than 10 bodies that never meet - and if they don't meet there's no direct cost to taxpayers. (Members aren't paid to serve; they're only reimbursed for expenses of attending meetings.)
Even so, Allen should abolish the paper puffs. Virginia governors are able to make more appointments to obscure state-sanctioned bodies than most governors. As political patronage goes, the power is relatively cheap and innocuous. But that's no excuse for do-nothing panels. No less than state employees who perpetuate waste and fraud, Virginia would be well rid of them.
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