Grove Issues Statement on Wasteful Spending by State Fiscal Watchdog Agency

January 30, 2020

DOVER – A recent article by SpotLight PA revealed the Office of State Inspector General wasted $160,000 in taxpayer money on pistols, ammunition and other equipment for its investigators. However, the investigators are not legally allowed to carry firearms, so the $160,000 worth of guns and accessories are left to sit unused. In response to this grave misspending of taxpayer dollars, Rep. Seth Grove (R-Dover), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, issued the following statement:

“The irony of this particular squandering of $160,000 in taxpayer dollars is the state inspector general’s office’s job is to weed out fraud in the Commonwealth and protect taxpayers. The state finds itself in this situation because the purchase happened without any public notification and the deal was done in a very non-transparent manner. To prevent this, and other wasteful spending from happening again, the Senate needs to approve House Bill 1502 to codify the state treasurer’s Transparency Portal and should amend the bill to ensure contracts of any state government entity are available for public scrutiny before the contracts are signed.

“Furthermore, members of the House should be aware of the bipartisan government fraud and improper payment legislation to deter further government waste across state agencies. By supporting this package of bills, legislators can let taxpayers rest easy knowing new internal controls would be in place to eradicate government waste, fraud and abuse.

“Pennsylvania has a reputation for corruption. It cannot be tolerated any longer. As a champion of transparency, good financial management, increased government efficiency and ending fraud, waste and abuse, I will not rest until it is eradicated and Pennsylvania government works for the people, not against them.”

Representative Seth Grove
196th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Greg Gross
717.260.6374
ggross@pahousegop.com
RepGrove.com / Facebook.com/RepSethGrove