Madison–In tonight’s State of the State address Governor Walker will discuss the creation of the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Elimination Taskforce.  When the Governor took office last year he created the bipartisan Commission on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.  The members turned in their final report earlier this month.  In it, they identified over $400 million in savings for the taxpayers.

 “Identifying waste isn’t enough; we need to eliminate it,” said Governor Walker.  “To that end, I’m announcing the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Elimination Taskforce charged with the responsibility to follow through on the report.”

The Governor’s Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Elimination Taskforce will be charged with implementing and tracking the recommendations of the Commission on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.  Together, successfully implemented these recommendations could yield nearly half a billion dollars in savings for taxpayers.

The Taskforce will also coordinate state agency sub-groups that are formed to continuously identify waste and ways to make government more efficient.  These sub-groups will report to the full Task Force for consideration.

The Taskforce will also review and investigate submissions from the public to the Taskforce via bestpractices.wi.gov.  Governor’s staff will perform the initial analysis of the submissions and submit them to the full Taskforce.

The Governor’s staff will design monthly metric templates for state agencies and Taskforce members to use.  These templates will be used to track implementation of recommendations, savings totals, and new initiatives undertaken by the Taskforce.

Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Elimination Taskforce Membership                                        

Waylon Hurlburt, Deputy Policy Director, Governor’s Office

Brian Hayes, Division Administrator of the State Budget Office

Kevin Moore, Executive Assistant of the Department of Health Services

Dennis Schuh, Executive Assistant of the Department of Corrections

Steve Krieser, Executive Assistant of the Department of Transportation

Helen McCain, Division Administrator of the Division of Enterprise Solutions

Jack Jablonski, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Revenue

Craig Barkeler, Division Administrator of UI in the Department of Workforce Development

Summer Shannon-Bradley, Administrator of the Division of State Facilities

Nate Yahn, Policy Advisor, Governor’s Office