Executive Summary of the BSI FY22 Annual Report

An overview of the activities of the Bureau of Special Investigations in Fiscal Year 2022.

Overview

On June 15, 2021, Governor Charles Baker terminated the State of Emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year earlier in March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of government work, including the work of BSI. After working primarily outside of their office locations in Boston, Chicopee, Brockton, and Marlborough since onset of the pandemic, BSI staff members returned to their respective offices two days per week under a hybrid in-office/remote workplace model in January 2022. Although faced with unprecedented challenges over the last few years, BSI continues its work by using technology and innovation. The fiscal year 2022 (FY22) Bureau of Special Investigations Annual Report summarizes BSI’s work and initiatives to execute the Office of the State Auditor’s mission to make government work better by investigating, under its statutory charge, fraud, abuse, and illegal acts involving public assistance benefits throughout the Commonwealth. During FY22, BSI continued to investigate and identify fraud in order to maintain program integrity and uphold the Commonwealth’s residents’ faith in public assistance programs. BSI’s efforts ensure that public assistance programs operate with transparency so that benefits are available to residents who truly need them. Public assistance programs administered by the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Early Education and Care, and MassHealth provide vital social services for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged residents—children, persons with disabilities, low-income individuals and families, and seniors.

$13,519,349  The amount of fraud identified by BSI in FY 22.

COVID-19 continued to impact BSI’s work throughout FY22. The bureau experienced operational challenges both internally and externally with our partners and stakeholders, who were similarly impacted by COVID-19 that led to fewer referrals, backlogs and delays in fraud calculations.

In FY22, BSI opened 5,191 new investigations and completed 3,623¹total investigations. This report includes a comprehensive breakdown of the fraud identified within each program BSI investigates. Of the 668² completed cases with identified fraud, the average amount of fraud was $20,238.55.

1. This figure includes investigations that may have been opened during previous fiscal years and is not only tied to investigations opened during FY22.

2. This number reflects all the cases with a calculated overpayment (financial type).