Never Forget The Audits

This is my response to the piece, "How Corrupt is Detroit" referencing a poorly designed study on public corruption in major cities.  I had to keep it real.

The slant of the article is obviously a commendable posturing to defend the reputation of Detroit but it is quite strange that a comparative study on public corruption is based upon federal prosecutions excluding federal, state and county audit findings which are handled in administrative courts,

The Detroit region is one of the top five areas in the country for Medicare and Medicaid fraud as seen with the HHS and DOJ health care fraud task force.

Then we can go even further to say public corruption is rampant, demonstrated with the reduction of the Federal Financial Participation rates in Medicaid here in Michigan.

The levels of fraud in child welfare here in Wayne County are chilling, not because there is no regulation in the contracts and services, not because the attorney general will do nothing about it, but because children experience severe harms under the auspices of the state and it took a private, out-of-state party to file suit in federal court.

The measurement of public corruption should never be limited to convictions because that diminishes the role and the findings of an auditor general.

Let us not forget the sealed whistleblower complaints and sealed settlement agreements of dismissed cases in dealing with public corruption.

There are really wonderful public leaders and even more fabulous citizens here in Detroit, but until we come together and start telling the dirty little secrets of what we experience, the big picture of fraud will never have its public debut.

Beverly Tran