Auditor’s office releases report Identifying over $400 million in waste
April 14, 2025 – State Auditor Shad White has released a compilation of audits conducted by the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) that found over $400 million in waste. This report summarizes various audits OSA has conducted during White’s tenure and provides copies of each audit at the end of the report.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve jokingly started calling ourselves MOGE, the Mississippi Office of Government Efficiency, like Elon Musk’s DOGE,” said White. “As you can see from this 800-plus page report, we approach our work with the same attention to every penny as DOGE, and I’m happy to be Mississippi’s Musk.”
OSA does not have the authority to cut any of the wasteful spending identified in these reports. However, OSA has made recommendations for operational and legal changes that lawmakers and administrators could adopt to save hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds.
Some of the savings highlighted include:
- Medicaid audits showing ineligible beneficiaries receiving benefits and deceased Mississippians remaining on the Medicaid rolls
- Welfare funds spent on speeding tickets, cell phone bills for nonprofit executives, new vehicles, and college football game tickets
- Millions spent on education and health benefits to illegal immigrants
- Millions going to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives
- School districts paying for multiple pieces of software that do the same thing
- Hundreds of millions in unemployment benefits for ineligible people
“This work to find waste is critical, now more than ever,” said White. “Unfortunately, this is the exact kind of work that a state Senate proposal earlier this year would have prevented us from doing. As long as we have this authority, though, we will continue identifying waste in state government to bring Mississippi state government into the modern era. Our future will be bright if state government starts using a little more common sense in how it spends your money.”
