Maryland Gov. Wes Moore paid an outside consulting firm $5.6 million to identify government waste as part of his Government Modernization Initiative, though he opposes creating a statewide inspector general to do that sort of job on a permanent basis.
Mr. Moore has argued against an inspector general — an independent, nonpartisan official within government agencies who investigates fraud, waste and abuse — instead opting for internal oversight of his administration.
In response, the Maryland Republican Party pushed for the establishment of a state inspector general, saying, “No more excuses.”
“As Governor Wes Moore argues that Maryland doesn’t need an Inspector General — an independent watchdog that would hold his administration accountable — he is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on outside consultants to do work an IG could perform for a fraction of the cost,” the party said on social media.
Inspectors general typically identify waste but do not implement changes, while the governor’s modernization initiative identifies savings and implements reforms, a spokesperson for Mr. Moore’s office told WBFF Fox45 News.
Hiring an outside consultant allows Maryland “to benefit from the expertise of a firm that has previously accomplished this work with other states and the private sector,” the spokesperson said.
Currently, less than half of U.S. states have independent inspector general offices or an adjacent statewide agency, including Maryland’s Office of Legislative Audits, which fulfills a similar function.
Mr. Moore has cited the work of Chief Performance Officer Asma Mirza as a reason against having an inspector general at the state level. He told Fox45 in January that Ms. Mirza has “an expansive mission” that includes reducing waste and financial audits.
When Fox45 requested copies of those audits, the governor’s office said, “No records exist.”
The office later clarified that Ms. Mirza does not conduct audits herself, and her role includes reviewing audits conducted by the Office of Legislative Audits and working on the Government Modernization Initiative.
Maryland hired Boston Consulting Group in 2024 as part of Mr. Moore’s initiative to “save taxpayers money and promote smarter, more effective government operations” when the state was facing “the worst budget crisis in at least twenty years,” according to the governor’s office.
The two-year contract, with the option to extend another year, allows the consulting firm to be paid up to $15 million if it helps Maryland identify $75 million in savings. The state says about $29 million in savings have been identified so far — less than 40% of the initiative’s goal — and as the firm has already been paid approximately $5.6 million using federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The reported savings come from multiple areas, which include $18 million in year-over-year savings from restructuring and renegotiating seven contracts; $8 million in recurring savings from pausing vehicle purchases; $2.2 million in one-time savings from selling underused vehicles; $3 million in savings from laptop purchases and between $1.4 million and $1.7 million in projected savings from landlines.
“Instead of letting federal funding go to waste, Maryland strategically deployed these resources to continually find and implement ways to save Maryland taxpayers’ money,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Cummings said that Baltimore spends roughly $2.5 million annually to operate its inspector general’s office with 19 employees.
