One Man’s Trashcommented

yesterday on the news of William Woodfin’s resignation as Director of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. A scathing auditor’s report on numerous irregularities in the agency was the proximate cause.

Today, editorials here, here, and here reacted, with the Virginian-Pilot being typical:

A state auditor’s report identifying rampant waste and abuse at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries presents a stunning indictment of the goings-on at a major agency.

Reading the account of personal junkets, high-priced trinkets and overblown “protection” units brings to mind a banana republic where kingpins stomp around in safari hats and expensive boots, lording over the peons who keep the bosses supplied with game and sport.

Where were the checks and balances? If not for a citizen whistle-blower and the state’s fraud, waste, and abuse hotline, the misdeeds, primarily in the enforcement unit, would be continuing full bore.

The Pilot calls on Gov. Warner to replace the agency’s entire Board of Directors.

In state government, few watchdogs exist. That’s why it took citizens to uncover these practices. I suspect that many agency big-wigs are doing things similar in nature to what the Game and Inland Fisheries audit criticized. I hope they take the audit to heart and I hope that Gov. Warner, in his waning months as Governor, reminds his appointees that their jobs are about serving the taxpayers, not collecting perks and building empires.