Written by The financial crisis documented in local Marion financial and information technology records fits the profile of systemic fraud mechanisms targeted and uncovered by Department of Justice (DOJ) and federal investigative agencies. The crisis is not merely local incompetence; it is intentional technical systems manipulation—a decades-long pattern of vulnerability and criminal concealment known as “Silent Sabotage.”
Recent federal scrutiny focuses on whether an IT system was used as a tool to commit and conceal crimes that ultimately affect federal programs, tax collection, or public trust. The local records show a perfect match for this profile, with financial and IT control failures being historic, dating back to at least 1983. Allowed to fester over a period of at least 40 years.
Special Report: IT Control Failure as the Root of Federal Waste
Investigations by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have confirmed that the federal government loses hundreds of billions of dollars annually due to antiquated and broken computer systems. The central conclusion is that the government’s fraud rate (20%) is dramatically higher than the private sector’s (3%) because of technology failures, not just human error. This persistent failure allows the potential for criminals to exploit payment systems easily.
Key IT Failures Cited by DOGE:
- Data Silos and Outdated Privacy Laws: Agencies are prevented from digitally checking identities across different programs, a failure that allows individuals to secure multiple improper payments from different federal programs.
- Fragmented Payment Systems: The proliferation of non-standard financial systems makes tracking money nearly impossible and leads to disjointed reporting that hides the scope of waste.
- Weak Verification: Many federal programs rely on simple self-certification instead of modern digital tools to verify who is receiving benefits, allowing abuse by individuals using fabricated or stolen identities.
- Inaccurate Contract Data: Poor quality data in federal contracting systems makes it impossible to detect wasteful contracts or overpayments totaling billions.
Examples of Systemic Abuse:
- Social Security Discrepancies: DOGE found a critical flaw in the SSA’s NUMIDENT database where records for many individuals over 100 years old lacked reliable death-record matching. This IT failure enables financial fraud by keeping records active for identity thieves.
- Improper Entitlement Payments: Federal payment systems often allow essential financial audit codes to be left blank, making comprehensive audits of entitlement programs “almost impossible” and obscuring massive potential waste.
- Misleading Contracts: Flawed data entry in legacy procurement systems can cause huge errors, such as one instance that resulted in a $7.992 billion error in a Defense Department contract cancellation.
DOGE advocates for updating laws (like the 1974 Privacy Act) and standardizing financial systems to enable real-time payment verification and accountability.
| Type | Title and Description | Source |
| Primary Source | Hearing Wrap Up: DOGE Subcommittee’s First Hearing Uncovers Billions Lost to Fraud and Improper Payments, Launches “War on Waste” — This document confirms the 3% vs. 20% fraud rate disparity and attributes the problem to technology failures and the need to update the 1974 Privacy Act, directly matching the core claims in the provided text. | https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-doge-subcommittees-first-hearing-uncovers-billions-lost-to-fraud-and-improper-payments-launches-war-on-waste/ |
| Related Context | Fraud & Improper Payments | U.S. GAO — The Government Accountability Office (GAO) often provides the foundational data and estimates regarding improper payments, which forms the basis for the DOGE Subcommittee’s investigations into waste and fraud. The provided text’s mention of “hundreds of billions of dollars annually” aligns with GAO reporting. | https://www.gao.gov/fraud-improper-payments |
| Related Context | Improper Payments: Ongoing Challenges and Recent Legislative Proposals — A Congressional Research Service (CRS) product outlining the long-standing challenges of improper payments ($2.7 trillion since FY2004) and related legislative proposals, including the need for better identity verification and standardized payment systems. | https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48296 |
Digital Deception—Violations of Federal and State Law
The local financial crisis demonstrates that the specific IT control failures cited by DOGE are present and actively exploited, violating the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) Rule 117-2-01 and Federal grant rules (2 CFR § 200.303).
The Critical Failure of the Audit Trail
The local system’s failure to perform legally required checks was the single most important factor enabling massive losses and fraud concealment.
- The Broken Check-Up Timeline: The bank reconciliation module—the software tool needed to check bank records against local spending—was broken or disabled. This critical safeguard was non-functional for an estimated 15 to 16 years (from the New World software’s installation around 2008 until functional resolution under Mayor Collins’ term in 2024). Current officials verify that the reconciliation module was discovered but not operational in 2023-24. The fix was completed in 2025. The city had bought and was paying for New World as a package, but the system was not made fully active until after the forensic financial audit was started.
- Sole Cause of Federal Tax Loss (Auditor Landon III): The IT control failures were the sole reason former Auditor Robert Landon III’s oversight, causing a massive $154,399 IRS penalty (starting June 2020), went unnoticed for months. The error went uncaught precisely and only because the legally mandated reconciliation module was non-functional, and other safety controls were disabled or incorrectly configured.
- Disabled Software Controls: Current officials confirmed crucial control features or “switches” in the financial software were turned off, disabled, or never installed. This confirms a deliberate bypassing of the internal controls required by law.
- Massive Financial Chaos: This IT control failure led directly to the data chaos: a $16,192,124.15 cash gap and a ($104,642,158.06) negative balance according to a trial balance ledger from 2020 and corroborated by several current and past officials.
- Cost of Digital Repair: Repairing the digital ledger for 2021 alone cost $1,464,000 in net expenses, as reported by Veritas Solutions Group in July 2023.
Criminal System Manipulation and Fraud
The IT failures provided the necessary cover for Auditors to actively commit fraud:
- Criminal Admission (Auditor Meginness): Auditor Miranda Meginness admitted to fraud and intentionally used the system to “hide the payment” of an IRS penalty, using “false documentation”.
Vulnerability Built on Decades of Neglect (1983–2019)
The systemic collapse was built on decades of ignored warnings about controls and financial strain, creating an environment where high-value insider fraud could thrive.
- 1983 (Jan 10): Foundational Compliance Failure. Records show that the local government had to pass a special local law to authorize the Auditor to pay routine bills, citing Ohio Revised Code (ORC) Section 5705.41 (D). This confirms that the internal financial rules were so broken in 1983 that routine tasks were deemed illegal without special, restrictive state code authority.
- Pervasive Insider Theft (Brenda Nwosu): The theft by former city utility supervisor Brenda Nwosu (prosecuted for stealing tens of thousands of dollars) went undetected for over 3.5 years (from January 2011 to August 2014) and was only discovered by the State Auditor, confirming internal controls consistently failed to stop high-value insider fraud.
- 2008: IT Breakdown Enables Crime. A major IT breakdown was revealed when a theft of “several thousand dollars” in a local office was possible because the office relied on “paper and pencil” accounting, which meant the employee could easily “cover trails”.
- Ongoing Operational Loopholes: Council members consistently criticized all departments for failing to open Purchase Orders (POs) before work was done. This systemic loophole mirrored the lack of discipline in IT controls.
The Call for a Forensic IT Audit and Investigation
The parallels between the local government’s systemic digital deficiencies and the core factors central to federal financial investigations are undeniable. The inability to resolve the missing controls and the proof that Auditors were actively using the system for crime show that the problem is one of intentional digital subversion.
A full forensic IT audit is necessary to get the digital evidence needed to trace the funds and identify who intentionally disabled the software controls, allowing the system to become a tool for Silent Sabotage.