“Reliable Source” Says Fraud In State Department Of Social Services Is “Widespread.”

News 8 (WTNH) is quoting a “reliable source” to the effect that Connecticut’s Department of Social Services (DSS) “has been ignoring fraud for years because of staffing shortages.

“A person with years of experience working the state Department of Social Services Fraud Division says the alleged fraud announced by the Malloy Administration is just the tip of the iceberg, and what's worse, they know it and don't do anything about it…

The anonymous source told News 8:

"Fraud is never followed up on. There are so few people that handle the fraud cases that there are thousands of cases sitting in file cabinets, sitting on desks that will never get processed…

"The statute of limitations on cases, people move, people become un-locatable, so basically these files that are sitting on desks simply. They're just there, a waste of space."

Commissioner of DSS Roderick Bremby, on the job only 7 months, said In response, “I know of no fraud or abuse in any of our programs."

Asked, “And there's no files of reported fraud that hasn't been investigated?" Mr. Bremby responded, “There are no files of reported fraud that I am aware of in any of our programs."

Of course, if there were widespread fraud in the DSS programs, it would not be likely that the commissioner would be made aware of them by those in DSS who have worked for the agency more than 7 months, especially if they were involved in the fraud. What a commissioner 7 months on the job “does not know” or is “unaware of” could easily fill a small library.

Responding Wednesday to the WTNH-TV report Governor Dannel Malloy said, "I can assure you that my administration will take those kinds of reports very seriously," according to an account in CTMirror. Noting that a whistleblower law protects any employees in a position to make similar reports. "Anybody who has any information, please bring it to me."

By mid-afternoon, Mr. Malloy dispatched an e-mail message to the media:

"Based on my administration's investigation, it appears clear that the abuses of public trust involved go beyond simply lying about income. In some instances, people lied about assets under their control or even listed a deceased relative as living in the household. Given the information known to us, these were not oversights or honest mistakes.

"This was outright fraud, and it will not stand."

The Blumenthal Burisma Connection

Steve Hilton , a Fox News commentator who over the weekend had connected some Burisma corruption dots, had this to say about Connecticut U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s association with the tangled knot of corruption in Ukraine: “We cross-referenced the Senate co-sponsors of Ed Markey's Ukraine gas bill with the list of Democrats whom Burisma lobbyist, David Leiter, routinely gave money to and found another one -- one of the most sanctimonious of them all, actually -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal."

Powell, the JI, And Economic literacy

Powell, Pesci Substack The Journal Inquirer (JI), one of the last independent newspapers in Connecticut, is now a part of the Hearst Media chain. Hearst has been growing by leaps and bounds in the state during the last decade. At the same time, many newspapers in Connecticut have shrunk in size, the result, some people seem to think, of ad revenue smaller newspapers have lost to internet sites and a declining newspaper reading public. Surviving papers are now seeking to recover the lost revenue by erecting “pay walls.” Like most besieged businesses, newspapers also are attempting to recoup lost revenue through staff reductions, reductions in the size of the product – both candy bars and newspapers are much smaller than they had been in the past – and sell-offs to larger chains that operate according to the social Darwinian principles of monopolistic “red in tooth and claw” giant corporations. The first principle of the successful mega-firm is: Buy out your predator before he swallows

Down The Rabbit Hole, A Book Review

Down the Rabbit Hole How the Culture of Corrections Encourages Crime by Brent McCall & Michael Liebowitz Available at Amazon Price: $12.95/softcover, 337 pages “ Down the Rabbit Hole: How the Culture of Corrections Encourages Crime ,” a penological eye-opener, is written by two Connecticut prisoners, Brent McCall and Michael Liebowitz. Their book is an analytical work, not merely a page-turner prison drama, and it provides serious answers to the question: Why is reoffending a more likely outcome than rehabilitation in the wake of a prison sentence? The multiple answers to this central question are not at all obvious. Before picking up the book, the reader would be well advised to shed his preconceptions and also slough off the highly misleading claims of prison officials concerning the efficacy of programs developed by dusty old experts who have never had an honest discussion with a real convict. Some of the experts are more convincing cons than the cons, p

Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

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