Arlington Hotline Yields Leads, No Evidence of Fraud
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Arlington Hotline Yields Leads, No Evidence of Fraud

By Vernon Miles

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

In 2015, Arlington County’s Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline was opened to allow employees to confidentially report potential cases of financial malfeasance. One year later, the hotline was expanded to allow reports from any member of the public. And in that time, with 24 reports submitted on the hotline, the county has found zero fraud, waste, or abuse.

According to Maria Meredith, deputy director of the Department of Management and Finance, said that every report is taken seriously and investigated. Of those 24, three were non-unique duplicates. Ten, including the duplicates, are under investigation. Fourteen investigations have been closed with no waste, fraud or abuse found.

A review committee, appointed by the county manager, does an initial review of the complaints. If something criminal is found, the complaint will be immediately referred to the Arlington Police. Investigations can also result in an internal or external audit. Some complaints are passed on to the Human Resources department, but Meredith said no result was found when the complaints were sent to that department either.

Complaints are not sent directly to the review committee but, to ensure confidentiality, are run through an external company called Ethical Advocate. This system allows the review committee to leave questions for the anonymous writers to help investigate the story. One issue Meredith says the hotline has experienced is that after filing their complaint, many never check their complaint again for questions. As the system is designed for anonymity, Meredith said it’s important for those filing a complaint to write down and remember the user-ID and password used on the site.

To reach the Arlington County Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline, call 866-565-9206 or write in at arlingtonva.ethicaladvocate.com.

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