State Auditor Publishes Project Momentum – Largest Government Waste Audit in Decades – Daily Leader

On Monday, State Auditor Shad White announced the release of “Project Momentum,” the largest waste audit of Mississippi state government in decades. Project Momentum identified approximately $335 million in recurring waste across thirteen state agencies.

“I was encouraged by President Trump’s recent announcement that, if elected, he would appoint Elon Musk to head the Government Efficiency Commission, which will be tasked with helping eliminate fraud and waste in the federal government,” White said. “We do the same thing here in Mississippi with Project Momentum.”

Project Momentum follows several other audits conducted by the Office of the State Auditor over the past five years for agencies such as the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Department of Medicaid – audits that also found tens of millions of dollars in savings from process improvements, increased eligibility screening, etc. Office of the Auditor The state engaged national experts from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to help conduct this audit. BCG has helped reform many broken state governments across the country and brought best practices and lessons from across the country to this project.

Some of the savings identified by Project Momentum include:

• IT contracts that Mississippi pays more for than states of similar size
• Agencies with too many vehicles that are underutilized
• Mississippi’s government spends more on state property insurance than even Florida
• Government offices with space that is never used
• Busiest agencies with too many employees
• Too much money spent on administrative costs in our K-12 system compared to other southern states
• $1.3 million savings per year if we sell the state aircraft

“I believe Project Momentum is the most important project we will pursue during my time as State Auditor because if we chainsaw all this fat, it will make the government leaner and smarter for decades to come,” said State Auditor Shada White ‘and.

“We would never have been able to complete this project without the help of Governor Tate Reeves and the heads of his agencies, who actively helped us identify these improvements,” White added.

Project Momentum can be found on the State Auditor’s website by clicking on the “Reports” tab and typing in the word “momentum.” You can also access the report Here.