Legislators should demand fraud protection before spending more money

There is a large clock that watches over the representatives in the Minnesota House, reminding them that they are always on deadline. As that clock ticked away toward sine die, Rep Patti Anderson made a last-minute attempt to call for a vote to hire a new fraud sheriff for the state.

After the Feeding Our Future scandal, hiring an Inspector General to sniff out fraudsters seemed like a layup. Lacking the super-majority it needed, Rep. Anderson’s motion was shot down, the clock struck midnight, and the bill was stone dead.

“They may not like the strength of the office and the fact that it does have law enforcement power, but that’s the way it is across the country.” Anderson said, “If you’re going to be serious about this, you actually need to give your Inspector General the authority to investigate and make decisions.”

Hopefully Rep Anderson and her GOP and DFL colleagues who support the bill, can wrangle a vote in a Special Session in the next week or two. Fraud and waste can no longer be tolerated.

But why do we need an Inspector General for fraud? Don’t we have people who are on the taxpayer’s dime who are supposed to do that right now? Of course we do.

We have a US Attorney, the FBI, an Attorney General, a State Auditor, a state Legislative Auditor and an Office of Inspector General. You pay their salaries, along with the hundreds of cops, attorneys and staffers who work for them. You are paying all of them to catch bad guys (and gals) who defraud Minnesotans.

To prosecute fraud, you first must want to find it. State agencies often overlook obvious fleecing. A Ramsey County whistleblower turned to KSTP News to complain that his work to root out daycare fraud was rebuffed by the Walz administration. “We can never get that money back anyway” he was told. Investigative reporters showed up at day cares and couldn’t find any kids. This is not new.

 In 2019, the Walz administration’s point person on daycare fraud, Carolyn Ham was put on paid leave after fraud investigators complained that she was obstructing their investigations. The Office of Legislative Auditor found millions in losses and “serious rift between the DHS Inspector General and CCAP investigators.” Ham was put on paid leave and an investigation into her conduct was later closed without accountability.

Like Rep Anderson, Sen Steve Drazkowski used the final days of session to get a vote on a Senate File 3190  he introduced to address the $900 million in annual improper payments in Medicaid in Minnesota. Drazkowski’s bill mandates that before tax dollars go to pay for their Medicaid, the person getting the Medicaid must be found to not live in another state or be dead. The democrats in the senate voted this down on a party-line vote.

Legislators should install a new Fraud Sheriff in Minnesota. They should also demand that the money legally poured down a rat hole be stopped by changing the laws. Bureaucrats in St. Paul don’t care enough if money is being wasted. Our laws need to reflect the fact that the cops can only catch the crooks if they break the law.