Wagner found state cards used for $5.2 million in transactions or cash withdrawals in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. This includes 797 transactions in California, 59 in Puerto Rico, 27 in Alaska and 21 in Hawaii.
And that was just in one month, May 2010.
Wagner can't find what all this was for, whether Internet buys or road trips.
But he notes one case of obvious fraud: This May 17, someone used an EBT card to withdraw $147,525 from a welfare account in installments of $1,500.
Think the system has some vulnerability?
Wagner says department management is so lax (his report refers to it as "an attitude of indifference"), there's no way to tell what's going on, how money's spent or even if residents of other states are using our cards.
Welfare officials claim no responsibility to control spending and "no authority to place restrictions on the use" of cards.
Wagner, sensibly, disagrees. He calls for better monitoring, internal reviews and banning purchases "inconsistent with the intent of social-service programs."
California last year banned assistance cards at spas, massage parlors, strip clubs, tattoo shops, casinos, bail-bond agencies and cruise ships.
Cruise ships? Really? You'd think certain prohibitions would be in place Day One.
But the only restriction in Pennsylvania (enacted in December '09) is no booze buys. And because cards can be used to get cash, how exactly is that enforced?
This isn't about politics. Democrat Wagner has been stonewalled by the administrations of Democrat Ed Rendell and Republican Tom Corbett. And, remember, the GOP budget calls for $400 million in welfare savings. Why aren't the administration, the department and the Legislature begging for this audit?
