The City of Lubbock is taking steps to create a fraud, waste and abuse hotline. The hotline will be an anonymous way for city employees and the general public to notify the city when a public worker isn’t behaving as he or she should.
The hotline will be run by the Department of Internal Audit, but complaints and requests will also be transferred to human resources. The service will be run through a toll-free number seven days a week. Calls will be fielded by a third-party company.
The city of Lubbock is currently accepting bids from possible contractors for the hotline.The deadline for proposals is on July 24 at 3:00 p.m.
Leisa Hutcheson, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management for the city of Lubbock, helped with planning for this new hotline.
“It’s going to be an offsite, external, 24-hour, both phone and internet accessible, abuse, fraud, and waste hotline,” Hutcheson explained. She reiterated that employees, non-employees and even non-residents can use the hotline.
“We’ve got about 22 hundred employees [with the City of Lubbock]. There’s no way that one of them somewhere isn’t doing something they shouldn’t be doing,” Hutcheson said. “99 percent of the employees are great folks and do great jobs and care about the community, but you’re always going to have that small percentage of people who don’t.”
Hutcheson explained that in the past, city employees have stolen materials and time while on the job.
“We have had employees steal time, falsify timecards and get paid for time when they didn’t work. We have had individuals work with people outside of the organization and create false invoices that got paid and they shared the money,” Hutcheson said.
“There have been things in the news in the last few years, instances where employees have stolen copper or other metals and sold them,” Hutcheson added.”In fact one of the ways we found out about one of those same thefts was from a metal recycling company.”
Hutcheson explained that the metal recycling company helped the city learn of the theft and gave the city the information they needed to take action. That type of responsive reporting is exactly what the new hotline aims to accomplish.
Stan Koetting of Lubbock learned about the city’s new hot line when he came by City Hall Tuesday to file a different type of complaint. For him, it’s not clear what types of circumstances he might call in to the hotline for.
“I see some things that I don’t agree with (from city employees) but I don’t know if it’s legal or illegal,” Koetting explained.
Koetting said that he would call in egregious behavior from city employees if he saw it, but he’s not confident that other people would.
“I kind of think that most people wouldn’t get involved unless it was something fairly major. I just think that’s the way society is,” Koetting said.
Whether or not the hotline leads to any important discoveries, the city is optimistic that having the hotline in place is a good thing.
“Nothing may come of it, but we’d rather look at it and make sure than not,” Hutcheson said.
“Just call if you think something is not right or if you think an employee is doing something that’s wasteful of your money or my money, then give us a call. Give us as much information as you can because without that information we can’t investigate,” Hutcheson added.
Hutcheson estimated that the hotline should be in operation in roughly 90 days.
Similar hotlines are common in other large cities; Texas Tech has a similar hotline as well