OPINION:
Here we go again (“States forgave billions in fraudulent pandemic benefits,” Web, Sept. 29). Billions of fraudulent, basically untraceable claims are being forgiven because of — here it comes — antiquated systems.
This was a constant theme of the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk, which the press failed to cover. Replacing antiquated systems results in checks on people’s work and making sure payments can be traced. It cuts down enormously on human error and eliminates redundant jobs or replaces them with high-skill jobs.
You can bet if this kind of mistake were made in private industry, heads would roll. Stockholders would be up in arms and the executives responsible would be fired. But here we are again, with our money illegally harvested by tricksters and no way to recover it. It’s way past time for the U.S. government to invest in — and, more important, deploy on budget and on time — top-of-the-line, cutting-edge hardware and software to make the recovery and distribution of taxpayer funds valid and traceable.
We should also do away with budgets based on head count. Let’s make them based instead on the performance of departments and their error levels.
One has to wonder how much of our tax money is wasted and/or stolen because state-of-the-art money management systems are not in place. I don’t know anyone who writes a check and doesn’t know where the money came from or where it’s going.
Government works for the taxpayer. It’s time it remembered that.
P.L. HAMP
Herndon, Virginia
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