When is it acceptable to defraud our next door neighbors? The expected answer is never. Why would we wish to cheat our neighbors? Well, suppose they lived a half-mile away and we didn’t know their names? Some of us might ask, what is it we’re 
talking about? Governmental ethics is in play here with food stamp fraud in Greenville, SC.
Well, maybe what we’re talking about is an erroneously delivered newspaper. We might not think that’s so bad, or how about holding onto a 20% off coupon mailed to the wrong address? That might not be so “tragic,” but how would we feel if our next door neighbor, or even the neighbor three blocks away stole several thousands of dollar’s worth of food stamp benefits? Suppose the food stamp benefits were intended for flood victims? Suppose, even further, that those neighbors who stole the food stamps intended for the flood victims didn’t have so much as a drop of water enter their basements? Would it bother us or would we think, “Oh well, it’s just government money!”
The theoretical turned into reality recently, and our “ethical laboratory” took place in Greenville County, South Carolina – an unfortunate example of Governmental Ethics gone bad. Last year South Carolina endured terrible floods in 24 counties. The government (the state Department of Social Services) had to issue food stamp benefits to those completely devastated. Fair enough – it’s what neighbors should do for one another.
As a responsible agency, the Department of Social Services had to conduct an audit to make sure the funds were properly spent. Of the 9,029 audited applications for help, 297 were frauds. Of the fraudulent claims, about 75 came from Greenville County alone. There could be many more cases of fraud not caught in the audit that we will never know about. Fraud is not only unethical it’s illegal and this is an example of bad governmental ethics.
Pay Us Back
Those who were found responsible in Greenville County, stole a total of $32,373. The Department of Social Services is asking the fraudsters to pay them back. If they don’t immediately pay the money back, it could wind them up in court and if they can’t pay, it will affect their taxes.
Now, not surprisingly, officials are wondering how it was so easy for Greenville County residents to claim these benefits when Greenville was not that hard-hit in the October storms and floods. One theory is that residents may have been misled into applying for benefits by government workers simply because they lived in the county and were told they were “entitled.”
This scenario sets up some fascinating, but frighteningly powerful ethical arguments. Do “we” tend to think that if a “give-away” is part of a government, rather than private program, that “we” are entitled to the money by virtue of our citizenship and the fact that we pay taxes? Is this how governmental ethics work?
Apparently, the fraudsters were asked when making application for the food stamps to show proof of identity, address and income, in addition to showing how much they lost in the floods. Here’s another ethical situation: each applicant’s claim was reviewed by a Greenville social services worker. They were warned against committing fraud – but how intense was that warning?
The fraud might well have been a combination of social services workers and the recipient’s working the system with a few winks and nods. After all, I have little doubt most of the case workers lived in Greenville County as well. They knew first-hand how much (or how little) their area of South Carolina had been flooded.
I am not blind to the fact that many of the recipients may have been terribly, desperately poor nevertheless, having a social worker possibly working in tandem with the recipients to “job the system,” was wrong. This is not how governmental ethics is supposed to work.
On the other hand, I have indeed known very wealthy people who have worked the government system as well. Never assume flood benefits, food relief and other social services are the domains of the poor alone. Fraud talks to ethical character and not to bank accounts.
Who is the government? We are. Where does the money for food stamps come from? It comes from us. When a neighbor files a fraudulent claim, they are cheating us. When “we” file a fraudulent claim, we cheat them. Most of all, we cheat ourselves.
Ultimately, we get the kind of government we deserve, and we live in the kind of ethical or unethical society we create.
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