State Auditor reveals largest audit, “Project Momentum”
JACKSON, Miss. (WCBI) – State Auditor Shad White unveiled “Project Momentum,” the largest audit of government waste in Mississippi in decades.
The audit identified approximately $335 million in recurring waste across 13 state agencies.
Key areas of waste include overspending on it contracts, underutilized state vehicles, excessive insurance costs, unused office space, and high administrative costs in the k-12 school system compared to other southern states.
The report also highlights potential savings of $1.3 Million per year by selling the state plane.
White points out that none of what his agency found during this audit is against the law.
“We found no criminal findings when we were doing these audit; but we find inefficiency, and what you see when you are talking about inefficiency in government, what you will see is a government employee who is spending other peoples money and they are acting like it. They are not being very frugal with it, or you’ll see a lobbyist that comes in and they will convince a lawmaker, or state agency head, hey you really need this product right here and then it get’s done. so those are the kinds of things that are not criminal but they are worth pointing out because it does generate waste”, said White.
White said this project could make government leaner and smarter for decades to come. He also thanked governor Tate Reeves and agency heads for their assistance in identifying these improvements.
