Minnesota DHS investigating falsified documentation in behavioral health grant program
State officials in Minnesota’s Department of Human Services learned in mid-December that the legislative auditor had discovered multiple employees had either backdated or created documentation in a multimillion-dollar grant program, 5 INVESTIGATES has learned.
The revelation came on Tuesday during a hearing at the State Capitol, where Legislative Auditor Judy Randall presented an audit of DHS’s Behavioral Health Administration Grants. The taxpayer money for the prevention and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders totaled more than $425 million from July 2022 to December 2024.
Randall told lawmakers her staff discovered “a number of documents that BHA either backdated or created after our audit began,” characterizing the incidents as a systemic effort.
“It wasn’t just one individual that created the documents or backdated the documents,” Randall told lawmakers. “There were several BHA staff that we could identify who had done this and it was across the grant oversight process.”
During that same hearing, DHS Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said the agency is investigating.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that any staff would provide anything other than accurate representation of the work done to an auditor,” Gandhi said.
5 INVESTIGATES asked to speak with Gandhi on Wednesday, to learn more about that internal investigation. A spokesperson said the temporary commissioner was “not available” for an interview.
The department has also not answered multiple questions about its investigation, including how many employees are under investigation and whether anyone has been disciplined or fired for the conduct described in the audit.
Erica MacDonald, former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, said this kind of incident would also be considered a red flag for state and federal agencies investigating fraud in Minnesota.
“Anytime that you have a government actor making a false material statement in the course of an audit, that is an issue,” MacDonald said.
Investigative reporter Kirsten Swanson is looking into other issues raised in the BHA audit. If you have information you want to share with her, you can email her at kswanson@kstp.com
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