Sen. Mulliken says five bills to be rolled into one meant to curtail fraud, protect honest centers

COLUMBIA BASIN — Years after the investigation into fraudulent daycare centers in Mattawa began, laws are still being planned so that similar situations do not happen again.

State Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, is working on proposing five bills to the state Legislature, which are meant to protect honest daycare centers and curtail the surfacing of fraud.

About three years ago, allegations started surfacing about people making up phantom children in order to receive state subsidies for daycare. A faulty accounting system made the fraud difficult to probe into.

Mulliken said that the five bills she's proposing will likely be rolled into one, larger "omnibus" bill. The purpose of these bills is to prevent future fraud, as well as add certain cautionary items to the applications for people seeking a childcare license.

These cautionary items include a perjury statement, warning people of penalties in case of fraudulent or fake information on their applications.

The rest of the Mulliken-proposed bills include requiring a unique identifying number for each childcare agency, requiring childcare providers to verify their identity with picture ID, date of birth and social security or employer identification number and requiring the DSHS to investigate fraud and to cooperate with fraud investigation, something Mulliken believes was missing the first time around.

"I am disappointed that the DSHS was not more responsive to the suspicion of fraud," she said, adding that the state should have been more responsive to the needs of the community. The DSHS "failed" to be accountable to the public, Mulliken said.

The most important bill of them all, Mulliken said, is the one being proposed by State Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, which creates the Office of State Inspector General, which would guard these fraudulent practices from happening again.

"We need to move the investigation division out of DSHS," Mulliken explained.

To Mulliken, having the investigation division come out of DSHS is the equivalent of having the fox guard the henhouse, as she put it. The office of inspector general would create an entire agency dedicated to investigating these situations. The state's new attorney general, Rob McKenna, is looking at the proposal, as well.

As opposed to DSHS, Mulliken believes law enforcement agencies and local prosecutors need to be praised for not giving up on their own investigation of the Mattawa cases.

"Because our local government did not give up, (the investigation) reached a point where I am confident that there will be some reform that will keep fraud from happening," she said, adding that this is also meant to protect people who run honest daycare centers.

"With these bills, you address the concerns of both the daycare and foster care, you protect the good homes and you prevent abuse," Mulliken said.