BOARD WANTS FOCUS ON FRAUD.

Byline: Troy Anderson  Staff Writer

Los Angeles County supervisors asked CAO David Janssen on Tuesday to develop methods to help auditors detect more fraud, waste and mismanagement in county government.

``There is no doubt we need more accountability in this area because we are not enforcing discipline or prosecuting these people,'' Supervisor Gloria Molina said.

Fraud and waste by county employees and contractors resulted in record numbers of convictions and firings in 2003 involving some $1.5 million, a Daily News analysis of four years of county fraud reports found.

The number of investigations opened as a result of tips to the county's fraud hotline jumped from 279 in 2000 to 512 last year, an 84 percent increase, while the number of substantiated cases rose 23 percent, from 77 to 95.

The actual dollar loss uncovered in these cases soared 17,000 percent from $8,876 in 2000 to $1.5 million last year.

``That's a remarkable increase we've had in fraud,'' Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said. ``As initiator of the fraud hotline, it seems like we are making some good progress.''

Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley said he has seen an increase in waste and fraud.

``We have six people working on it now,'' McCauley said. ``These are hard times because of staff needs. Can we use more people? Yes, we could. Can we find more fraud? I assume we would.''

McCauley said his office has trained more than 1,000 county employees on what things to look for to detect waste and fraud.

``Fraud is increasing,'' McCauley said. ``The cases also increase in periods of budgetary difficulty. We get a lot of calls from people saying other units are not working hard and should be cut before them. It is increasing and we continue to try to find better tools. In the end, we do need more staff.''

Members of the public can anonymously call the fraud hotline to report suspected fraud, waste and misuse of county assets at [phone].

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com