Whether a sports fan or not, every Mississippian has heard of Brett Favre, and recently the Hall of Fame NFL quarterback has found himself at the forefront of national news for his role in a Mississippi welfare fraud scheme.
State Auditor Shad White addressed the elephant in the room on Monday as he spoke to the Starkville Rotary Club at the Hilton Garden Inn, eliciting laughter from those gathered to hear about everything the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor does.
“We want to make sure that public dollars are protected,” White said. “We want to make sure people understand that, and we want to make sure that anybody who’s out there and thinking about stealing knows that there’s some consequences. We know that our job is to do the same job every time the same way regardless of how famous somebody might be, whether they used to play football for the Packers, any of that kind of stuff.”
Favre, former Gov. Phil Bryant and former Mississippi Community Education Center executive director Nancy New were reportedly involved in funneling more than $1 million in welfare funds to spend on a new $5 million volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi. The case dates back to 2017.
New pleaded guilty in April to four counts of bribery, two counts of fraud against the government, six counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering, the Associated Press reported.
Favre is being sued by the Mississippi Department of Human Services for his alleged involvement in the welfare fraud, and Bryant is currently not facing any charges.
White told The Dispatch when tips from whistleblowers come in about cases such as the Favre welfare case where rich people are taking from programs that are intended to benefit the poor, those in his office must remove themselves from feelings to properly investigate.
“Initially what you have to do is remove your feelings from yourself because it may be a false tip,” White said. “… In the case of really any of our fraud investigations that revolve around programs that serve poor folks, once you get to the place where you see there is merit into the allegations, it makes you mad. It makes you angry, obviously, that these programs are being taken advantage of. The job of the auditor, though, is to turn those (feelings) off to start looking at the facts and do our job in an even-handed way.”
As for the welfare case, White said his office is continuing to investigate it and has provided everything they found to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“It’s going to be investigated from top to bottom — from the most important people all the way down to the janitor at DHS,” White said.
Job of state auditor
The primary function of the state auditor’s office is to look into state funds and how they are spent. White said he deals with all areas of state funds from the state to county level, but he does not deal with municipalities.
White said his office keeps about 1,500 cases open at any given time. It receives so many tips in a day that it doesn’t keep track of that number. More often than not, tips come from someone inside an organization or entity, and that is how a majority of the investigations begin.
Though his office is a partisan office, White, a Republican, said he doesn’t focus on political parties when investigating tips.
“I’ve got a great team of investigators who’ve signed an oath when they sign up for the auditor’s office to support and defend the constitution and the laws of the state and country, and that doesn’t say, ‘Only in the case of Democrats,’ or ‘Only the the case of Republicans,’” White said. “They take that oath. I took that oath when I became state auditor, and we take that seriously.”
After investigating fraud, embezzlement or any other crime regarding state funds, White’s office turns over all of its findings to prosecutors. The auditor’s office does not determine who gets charged with a crime.
Addressing staff
White said his office always needs more staff, but the problem isn’t funding. It is finding qualified people. Auditors must be a licensed Certified Public Accountant and have some knowledge of what the office does.
Because of this, there is a fellowship program White’s office has created. The program allows accounting students to have the rest of their school paid for if they promise to come work for the state auditor for a minimum of two years post-graduation.
“That’s helped us solve our recruiting problem,” White said.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion