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California State Auditor Logo COMMITMENT • INTEGRITY • LEADERSHIP

Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees
Wasteful and Improper Travel Payments, Improper Promotion and Hiring Practices, and Misuse of State Resources

Report Number: I2019-3

Introduction

The California Whistleblower Protection Act (Whistleblower Act) allows state employees to report improper governmental activities—actions by state agencies or employees that violate the law; are economically wasteful; or involve gross misconduct, incompetence, or inefficiency—without fear of retribution. The Whistleblower Act further authorizes the State Auditor, as the recipient of whistleblower allegations, to investigate and, when appropriate, report on substantiated improper governmental activity. For more than 25 years, our investigative work has identified and made recommendations to remediate a total of $578.3 million in state spending resulting from improper governmental activities such as gross inefficiency, theft of state property, conflicts of interest, and personal use of state resources.

The State Auditor’s Investigative Work From July 2018 Through December 2018

The State Auditor enables submission of whistleblower allegations of improper governmental activity in several ways. From July 1, 2018, through December 31, 2018, we received 636 calls or inquiries that fell within our jurisdiction. In addition, our office received hundreds of allegations that fell outside of our jurisdiction; when possible, we referred those complainants to the appropriate federal, local, or state agencies.

During this six‑month period, we conducted investigative work on 808 cases that we opened either in previous periods or in the current period. As Figure 1 shows, 571 of the 808 cases lacked sufficient information for investigation or are pending preliminary review. For another 147 cases, we conducted work or will conduct additional work—such as analyzing available evidence and contacting witnesses—to assess the allegations. We notified the respective agencies for another 28 cases so they could investigate the matters further, and we independently initiated investigations for another 25 cases. Some of these cases may still be ongoing. In addition, we requested that state agencies gather information for 37 cases to assist us in assessing the validity of the allegations.

Figure 1
Status of 808 Cases, July 2018 Through December 2018

Figure 1 contains a pie chart showing the status of all 808 cases the State Auditor performed some work on from July 2018 through December 2018.

Source: State Auditor.


For more information about the State Auditor’s investigations program, including the Whistleblower Act and the State Auditor’s responsibilities and authority, please refer to the Appendix.






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