By her own estimate, the current State Auditor has admitted that up to 30 percent of all state agencies have not seen completed audits within a three-year timeline as required by law. Without timely audits, we do not know if the Commonwealth is providing robust and accountable services for its people. Among the examples:

Cannabis Control Commission

A recent hack of personal data stored by a state vendor revealed the Cannabis Control Commission has never been audited.  The commission that is supposed to ensure the fair and complete oversight of legal retail and medical marijuana sales has no oversight.

This raises important questions:

• Is the personal, medical and product purchase information of the state’s 69,000 registered marijuana patients being adequately protected from hacking?
• Are state agencies and vendors who collect personal information on state employees, licensed cannabis workers, and others doing enough to prevent unauthorized access to the data?
• Is the Cannabis Control Commission fulfilling its obligations to the taxpayers by providing proper oversight to the cannabis industry, including regular and rigorous inspections of facilities and operations to prevent illegal activity and diversion of product?

Recently the Legislature granted the Cannabis Control Commission even more oversight of this industry, and we need to understand how and why the CCC has failed to deliver an equitable marijuana industry and has jeopardized the personal information of thousands all because of lax oversight. This is why Massachusetts needs an independent auditor who will stand up to Beacon Hill insiders and criticize sacred cows like the Cannabis Control Commission, which has inexplicably never been audited. 

Unemployment Insurance 

Another area of state government going unaudited is the unemployment insurance system, which paid out $33 billion over two years to residents impacted by the pandemic. Of this amount, $4 billion was flagged for potential errors and the state is looking to recover or forgive $2.3 billion in overpayments made incorrectly. The next State Auditor must take a holistic look at our public benefits, which are among the most generous in the nation, and compare them against our insurance trust fund solvency which has struggled to maintain adequate financing and places an exceptional burden on employers. Anthony has endorsed proposed spending by Governor Baker to replenish the fund with $300 million in one-time funds to make sure that businesses aren’t on the hook.

Nursing Homes

A third instance of unmet oversight is in the Commonwealth’s nursing home industry. While the State Auditor has previously flagged issues with MassHealth payments made to nursing home administrators, never before has the Auditor looked comprehensively at the systematic ways in which out-of-state operators may be using public dollars in pass-through schemes to inflate the salaries and revenue of CEOs and investor groups at the expense of residents and staffers. 

For Anthony, this issue is personal. His paternal grandmother died in an overcrowded nursing home, and if elected he will fight for seniors who deserve dignity in retirement.