Montgomery devoting $9,000 to new endeavor

ROCKVILLE, Md. (Map, News) - Examiner Staff Writer

Montgomery County’s inspector general this week announced the start of a new 24-hour hotline for waste, fraud and abuse in county government activities.

Thomas Dagley told The Examiner the county is paying a third-party business $9,000 a year to run the toll-free hotline, which became operational Thursday.

The hotline is particularly geared toward Montgomery’s approximately 9,000 employees, giving them an easy way to anonymously report any improper or illegal goings-on they witness from within their posts in the government.

“Examples would be contract or procurement fraud, thefts of county funds or violations of the whistle-blower law,” Dagley said. “This [hotline] is not a result of a perceived problem with these things but an extension of means already in place to report fraud.”

Generally, he said, the Office of the Inspector General receives 50 to 60 complaints annually of waste and abuse in the Montgomery County government. The prediction is that this number will rise with the hotline in place.

Fraud hotlines are increasingly popular ways for counties to show their employees that leaders are committed to protecting public resources, Dagley said.

In Montgomery County, council members voted in September to spend up to $17,000 for a hotline. Dagley said the three months since have been spent selecting a third-party business to operate the toll-free line. The decision was ultimately made to hire The Network, a Norcross, Ga.-based company that has provided hotlines to more than 1,000 organizations nationwide.

Dagley said the hotline is set to be operational indefinitely, but over the course of the next six months, his office will carefully analyze the calls received to get a better sense of the abuses observed by county employees.

The hotline can be accessed by calling 800-971-6059. The general public can report problems by calling 240-777-2500.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com

Advertisement