RIVERSIDE - Riverside County supervisors today approved a fraud and waste prevention program that gives tipsters the option of reporting via telephone or the Internet misuse of resources or abuses within county government.

The Countywide Fraud, Waste & Abuse Prevention Program will be used to crack down on employees or contractors who willfully violate standards of ethical conduct established by the board, according to the Auditor-Controller's office.

"This has been a long time coming," Riverside County Auditor-Controller Robert Byrd said. "Through the program, the county can achieve greater efficiencies and savings."

The program complements the county's 18-year-old Harassment Policy and Complaint Procedure and adds a third-party service where complaints of fraud, waste or abuse can be reported anonymously, either on-line athttp://www.countyofriversidespeakout.com, or via telephone at (800) 461-9330.

"The third party can maintain contact with the reporting party, and we can do useful things with the information received," Byrd told the board.

Byrd likened the program to the Human Resources Department's workers' compensation fraud unit and the Department of Public Social Services' welfare fraud investigations branch.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, between 2006 and 2008, the median cost of fraud in government was estimated to be $93,000.

"While the median loss is low in relation to many Advertisement
other industries, it is second in frequency only to the banking and financial services industry." the Auditor-Controller's office said in statement to the board.

Examples of fraud include charging personal expenses to the county and claiming overtime not worked. Waste could be overstocking inventory or performing unnecessary tasks in the course of one's work, according to the Auditor-Controller's office.

The statement pointed to examples of abuse of resources as instances where county employees are asked to do non-county-related work on the county's time and using county assets for personal reasons.

All investigations will be initiated by the Auditor-Controller's office, and a Fraud, Waste & Abuse Committee, chaired by Byrd, will monitor the results, ultimately deciding whether the incidents should be handled internally or referred to law enforcement, according to county documents.

The board will receive quarterly updates on investigations.

County employees are expected to receive a circular explaining the process for reporting abuse, as well as a code of conduct outlining the county's expectations of each employee.

The Auditor-Controller's office said state law forbids any employee from being retaliated against for blowing the whistle on fraud, waste or abuse.

An employee also has the option of calling in violations to the California Attorney General's anti-fraud hotline at (800) 952-5225.

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