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Friday, September 19, 2025

Tag: audit
September 5, 2025
Politics
The Resistance

IRS Official Fired Following Anti-Trump Social Media Rant.

PULSE POINTS

âť“WHAT HAPPENED: Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officer Niki Wilkinson was terminated after public LinkedIn posts surfaced criticizing the Trump administration and Republicans.

👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Niki Wilkinson, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), President Donald J. Trump, and Republican lawmakers.

đź“ŤWHEN & WHERE: Friday, September 5, 2025.

đź’¬KEY QUOTE: “Such a farce! Interesting how Senators outside the IRS are fear mongering and falsely describing the work.” – Niki Wilkinson

🎯IMPACT: The incident highlights continued scrutiny over IRS practices and political bias allegations.

IN FULL

Niki Wilkinson, a now-former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee, has been fired after LinkedIn posts trashing President Donald J. Trump and Republican lawmakers surfaced. The IRS officer’s social media posts attacked the President and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill over the firing of former IRS official Holly Paz, a central figure in a Barack Obama-era scandal involving politically motivated audits of conservatives.

In her LinkedIn posts, Wilkinson accuses Trump and Republican lawmakers of “fear mongering” and misrepresenting Paz’s actions. During the Obama administration, Paz served as deputy to Lois Lerner, the IRS Director for Exempt Organizations. In May 2013, Lerner was placed on administrative leave after Congressional investigators revealed she had used audits of pass-through businesses to target conservative business owners. Paz, however, remained in her role at the IRS following the scandal and Lerner’s resignation in September 2013.

Wilkinson defended Paz’s work in a LinkedIn comment, stating, “Such a farce! Interesting how Senators outside the IRS are fear mongering and falsely describing the work. They have no idea what Examiners found in those audits, which in fact exposed fraud or noncompliance in the passthrough area as for years the IRS didn’t effectively audit them.”

In addition, Wilkinson used her LinkedIn account to criticize the Trump White House. Earlier this week, she published two posts on the networking site, accusing President Trump of corruption. Other posts promoted Democratic Party talking points and political attacks on the Trump administration. The publicly viewable comments were made despite Wilkinson not being authorized to speak on behalf of the IRS.

Image by Alpha Photo.

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March 10, 2025
William Upton
Corruption
Crime

Medicaid Issued WHOPPING $1.1 TRILLION in Improper Payments.

The federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued an estimated $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the last decade, according to a new outside analysis. While CMS’s internal audits suggest at least $543 billion in improper payments over a decade, the Paragon Health Institute—an independent and nonpartisan healthcare think tank—says its research reveals the fraudulent payments are over double what the government reports.

According to researchers with the Paragon Health Institute, CMS data excludes eligibility checks, which produces a lower, inaccurate cost for fraudulent payments. The researchers note that CMS’s Payment Error Rate Measurement (PERM) audits under both the Obama and Biden governments excluded analysis of state eligibility determinations resulting in an inaccurate estimation of improper payments.

However, according to the Paragon Health Institute researchers, state eligibility determinations represent a critical point where fraud occurs. Under Obamacare, numerous states expanded their Medicaid programs resulting in a wider pool of eligible individuals and higher government reimbursements. The researchers contend this created “an incentive for states to improperly classify traditional enrollees, as well as ineligible applicants, as expansion enrollees.”

In addition to eligibility checks, the Paragon Health Institute notes that Medicaid’s presumptive eligibility rules—which allow hospitals to enroll patients in the government healthcare program based on stated income level and household size pending eventual review—represent another major avenue of fraud. According to the research, around 70 percent of individuals deemed eligible for Medicaid by hospital administrators are later determined to be ineligible.

Image by Images Money.

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The federal government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued an estimated $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the last decade, according to a new outside analysis. While CMS's internal audits suggest at least $543 billion in improper payments over a decade, the Paragon Health Institute—an independent and nonpartisan healthcare think tank—says its research reveals the fraudulent payments are over double what the government reports. show more
February 13, 2025
William Upton
Politics

DOGE Staff Begins Audit of the IRS, Trump Confirms.

A top staffer with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by technology mogul Elon Musk, arrived at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday to begin a review of the tax-collecting agency’s operations. Gavin Kliger, a senior adviser at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) who is working with DOGE, is leading the IRS review and has already initiated meetings with the agency’s senior staff.

“The Internal Revenue Service will be looked at like everybody else. Just about everybody is going to be looked at,” President Donald J. Trump said during an Oval Office press conference on Thursday, confirming the DOGE review. He continued: “They’re doing a helluva job. It’s an amazing job they’re doing… I call it the force of super-geniuses.”


Meanwhile, senior IRS officials were also directed to examine all “non-essential” contracts and determine which could be eliminated. In a memo issued by the General Services Administration (GSA)—the federal agency that manages most government contracts—the IRS is directed to review consulting agreements and provide justifications for the expenditures.

“Consistent with the goals and directives of the Trump administration to eliminate waste, reduce spending, and increase efficiency, GSA has taken the first steps in a government-wide initiative to eliminate non-essential consulting contracts,” the GSA memo states.

Image by Alpha Photo.

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A top staffer with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by technology mogul Elon Musk, arrived at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday to begin a review of the tax-collecting agency's operations. Gavin Kliger, a senior adviser at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) who is working with DOGE, is leading the IRS review and has already initiated meetings with the agency's senior staff. show more
November 18, 2024
News

Yes, the Pentagon Has Failed ANOTHER Audit.

The Pentagon has failed its audit for the seventh time in a row, highlighting ongoing challenges in fully accounting for its $824 billion budget. The audit resulted in a disclaimer of opinion as auditors were unable to gather sufficient information to form a comprehensive assessment of the accounts.

Only nine of the DOD’s 28 reporting entities achieved an unmodified audit opinion, while just one received a qualified opinion. Fifteen entities received disclaimers, and three audit opinions are still pending. Despite these mixed results, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Michael McCord expressed confidence in the agency’s forward momentum. He noted the ambition of obtaining a clean audit by 2028, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

McCord remarked that the DOD has made strides in comprehending its financial challenges and that there is a strong commitment within the Department to securing an unmodified audit opinion in the future. “Momentum is on our side, and throughout the Department there is strong commitment—and belief in our ability—to achieve an unmodified audit opinion,” he said in a statement. “So if someone had a report card that is half good and half not good, I don’t know that you call the student or the report card a failure.”

Independent public accountants and the DOD Office of Inspector General closely reviewed the financial statements for the audit. McCord did emphasize that work remains to bring the Pentagon into compliance. Pentagon officials likely feel added pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, headed by billionaire technology and space mogul Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Image by Asten.

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The Pentagon has failed its audit for the seventh time in a row, highlighting ongoing challenges in fully accounting for its $824 billion budget. The audit resulted in a disclaimer of opinion as auditors were unable to gather sufficient information to form a comprehensive assessment of the accounts. show more
August 9, 2024
William Upton
Corruption
Election 2024

Tim Walz’s Pension Program Faces Audit After ‘Cooking the Books’ Accusations.

The Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association (TRA) pension program faces an independent forensic audit over suspicions that its investment board, led by Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), may be cooking the books to hide the extent of investment fees paid to Wall Street fund managers. Compounding matters, communications between state pension officials and a national trade association suggest a concerted effort to discredit the forensic audit and pension forensics expert Edward “Ted” Siedle.

According to Siedle, the Minnesota teacher pension fund appears to be seriously underreporting investment fees. This concern resulted in a group of Minnesota teachers crowdfunding to hire Siedle to conduct an independent forensic audit of the pension fund and state investment plans.

“A cursory look at the Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association leads to the conclusion they’re either a world class pension or they’re cooking the books,” the pension forensics expert stated in late July. “Minnesota reported investment fees on the $26.7 billion teacher pension fund of $24.1 million. The teachers fund has a $6.6 billion private equity portfolio that would be expected to pay at least $132 million a year to fund managers.”

However, even before Siedle officially began his audit in April, Minnesota bureaucrats were actively working to discredit the investigation, according to communications reviewed by The National Pulse. Additionally, the series of emails and text messages obtained by Siedle reveal staff with the TRA coordinated with the National Council on Teachers Retirement (NCTR)–a trade association for state teacher pension programs—to distribute “opposition research” against the pension expert.

In a March 11, 2024, email with the subject ‘An Important Matter,’ TRA executive director Jay Stoffel alerted Gov. Walz and other officials regarding the independent audit effort. Stoffel described it as posing “many serious risks to the agency and pension fund,” adding the situation is one they “should be aware of and concerned about.”

The communications between TRA staff, Gov. Walz‘s office, and the NCTR raise serious questions about why an independent audit would raise such an alarm.

Image by Lorie Shaull.

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The Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association (TRA) pension program faces an independent forensic audit over suspicions that its investment board, led by Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), may be cooking the books to hide the extent of investment fees paid to Wall Street fund managers. Compounding matters, communications between state pension officials and a national trade association suggest a concerted effort to discredit the forensic audit and pension forensics expert Edward "Ted" Siedle. show more