Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times(emphasis ours),
A “culture of fraud” infected Minnesota state agencies, resulting in more than $9 billion in taxpayers’ money squandered, a new legislative report says.
“We finally pulled the curtain back—and the public is grateful,” state Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, said May 13 during a session that summarized 16 months of investigative work.
Many fraudsters “came to believe that fraud was tolerated and paid in a big way,”according to a report that Robbins released at the meeting. The report summarizes the committee’s attempts to dissect how state agencies became so mired in fraud.
Testimony from dozens of witnesses, including state employees and whistleblowers, demonstrated that Gov. Tim Walz’s administration neglected “basic due diligence” to protect taxpayers’ money, and instead “prioritized getting as much money out the door as possible” via government-benefits programs, the report says.
The administration also allegedly punished whistleblowers and “ignored andconsciously downplayed shocking levels of fraud” in more than a dozen Medicaid-funded programs, such as autism services, medical transportation, and adult day care, according to the document.
“All of these failures have created opportunities for serial fraudsters to steal billions from Minnesota taxpayers across multiple programs for years,” the report says, estimating $300 million in federal meals fraud and $9 billion in Medicaid fraud. Those numbers exclude “potential hundreds of millions more in fraud in child care” and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the report notes.
The governor’s office did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.
Walz has repeatedly defended his track record on tackling fraud,including in a May 6 news release, stating: “We’ve made significant progress to strengthen programs and root out fraud. Today, we’re building on our success by putting an even stronger structure in place; adding leadership, improving oversight, and ensuring these programs are managed with the discipline and accountability Minnesotans expect.”
Robbins said accountability is lacking because no one in state government has been fired for failures, nor even for falsifying records—afindingthat the Office of Legislative Auditor, a state watchdog, released early this year.
Source: ZeroHedge News
