More trouble for Minnesota’s Department of Human Services.
The state Office of the Legislative Auditor revealed Tuesday it found widespread issues in how DHS oversaw behavioral health grants, including instances where employees backdated and created documents during an audit which focused on money meant to help people with mental health and substance use disorders.
Legislative Auditor Julie Randall says the audit focused on how taxpayer-funded grants were managed.
“Frankly, in the 27+ years I’ve been with OLA, I have never seen this before,” Randall explained. “I will say we have had suspicions periodically, but we have never been able to prove it, to document it, and we did in this case.”
In one instance, the audit found a DHS grant manager authorized $672,000 in payments, and then left the state agency just a few days later to begin providing consulting services to the grantee.
There was no documentation supporting the work. The total grant was worth $1.6 million.
“If somebody directed staff to falsify documents, it is absolutely wrong, not OK,” Temporary DHS Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said. “You know, it’s an HR matter for sure. It may be more than that, as Auditor Randall, discussed. And DHS is conducting a full and thorough investigation.”
A new investigation is underway within the Minnesota Department of Human Services after a legislative audit revealed Behavioral Health Administration employees backdated and created documents during an audit.
This latest instance just piles on top of significant fraud issues within Minnesota that began with the Feeding Our Future case, and most recently claims of up to $9 billion in Medicaid fraud brought forward by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
There are more claims of fraud connected to federal funding provided to Somali-run daycares in the state after a YouTube video was posted by Nick Shirley that brought significant attention to the state nationally. So far, nobody connected to the daycares in those videos has been charged with fraud.
A CBS News review found dozens of citations related to safety, cleanliness, equipment and staff training, among other violations, but there was no recorded evidence of fraud.
Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people with allegedly defrauding Minnesota programs since the fraud was discovered in 2022 coming out of COVID funding provided to Feeding Our Future. There have also been charges filed against those accused of fraud related to behavioral therapy for children with autism, assistance for seniors searching for housing, funds paid out by Medicaid to 14 Minnesota-run programs.