Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera, who was recently called upon by Gov. Edwards to attest to the relative accuracy of the Louisiana Department of Health’s COVID numbers in light of an increasing number of local law enforcement and emergency-preparedness officials who are openly challenging the accuracy of those numbers.
Over the last month or so, a growing number of local law enforcement and emergency preparedness officials have openly questioned the accuracy of the COVID numbers being released by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ Office through the Louisiana Department of Health. The number of local folk questioning the numbers’ accuracy became large enough that The Advocate chose to rely upon Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera to counter their claims.
Based upon the following 71-second recording of former Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOSHEP) Deputy Director Mark DeBosier’s commentary regarding his ability to get Purpera and his office to “put their fingers in their ears, close their eyes…..and we make sure there’s no fingerprints on it,” we openly question just how much faith the public should place in Purpera’s on-the-fly attestation of Gov. Edwards’ COVID numbers:
Former GOHSEP Deputy Director Mark DeBosier brags of his ability to get Purpera and the Legislative Auditor’s Office to “put their fingers in their ears, close their eyes…..and we make sure there’s no fingerprints on it.”
DeBosier certainly doesn’t provide very compelling evidence of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s independence. We repeatedly offered Purpera the opportunity to appear on camera to defend his office regarding DeBosier’s commentary, and he declined every invitation we extended. Furthermore, one of Sound Off Louisiana’s subscribers with integral knowledge of Purpera’s operations who insisted upon maintaining anonymity made the following comment regarding DeBosier’s statements on the audio file above):
The LLA and his staff do thorough work and they rarely leave a stone uncovered. They also produce accurate reports and their findings are spot on. Problem arises is that their initial reports are released only to a select few for review and “editing”. It is at this point that politics come into play and the findings contained within these reports are highly edited and the majority of the unfavorable findings, which are the one that truly point out the corruption, are edited out of the reports prior to their release to the public. Just another way to deprive taxpayers of any truly independent oversight.
For those who want detail entailing what the issue at hand was when DeBosier made his commentary, feel free to CLICK HERE. For those who chose to read the material at the preceding link and for our long-time subscribers, many will recall that FEMA contracted monitor Corey delaHoussaye sued the Louisiana State Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The latest on that litigation is that OIG filed (under seal) a Motion for Summary Judgment, and oral arguments for that Motion are scheduled for Tuesday, September 29, 2020. We’ll be there to report on the outcome of the OIG’s motion, and we’ll provide a feature alerting our subscribers of its outcome.
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