Zanesville, OH-
State Auditor, Keith Faber, was in Zanesville yesterday to raise awareness about fraud and corruption at the government level.
Along with state Sen. Tim Schaffer, Faber is introducing a bill that would increase fraud reporting requirements for local governments.
“What we want is to make it real simple. When somebody sees something, they say something. We think it’s very appropriate for public officials, whether they’re elected or a government employee, who sees or suspects something that’s fraud, waste or abuse, to contact our office immediately. We have plenty of examples where if people would have reported information to us when they knew it, we would be able to mitigate the loss of the taxpayers,” Faber stated.
If you see something that doesn’t look right, whether that is a government official depositing checks into their own account, handling cash, or people living beyond their means, you can call and leave a tip at 1-866-FRAUDOH. The special investigation unit working with the auditor’s office has already uncovered many cases of corruption.
“We just announced that since I have been auditor, we have had more than 100 convictions of individuals that were lying, stealing, and cheating. It runs from the corrupt county sheriff down in Pike County that was literally stealing from the evidence room, to an assistant county auditor in Clark County, who stole more than 1.8 million dollars paying invoices to fake vendors,” Faber said.
Faber is anticipating this bill to be signed into law in late spring and be in effect by the end of summer this year. If you want to find out more information about other programs at the Ohio Auditor’s office, you can visit their website, ohioauditor.gov.
