As we know from investigations and prosecutions, particularly by federal officials, a significant number of people in these organizations were not serving. They were stealing not just from taxpayers but also from families in their own communities. As a result, families — particularly Somali families — did not receive the food, child care or other state-funded services that they needed and that taxpayers had paid for. Added to this betrayal, people in these community organizations were using the stolen money to buy expensive homes, automobiles and other personal items for themselves.
Despite the federal, and some county, investigations and prosecutions, the state’s negligence allowed people in these sham organizations to continue to use their simple theft scheme repeatedly in child care programs, food programs, housing programs and others. This egregious lack of oversight by state officials has also deepened public mistrust in government.
While executive officials were obviously negligent, less obvious is the fact that some key legislators tried to minimize the fraud problem and shield the Department of Human Services and the Walz administration from criticism.
For example, when the Office of the Legislative Auditor issued a report on child care fraud, the then-chair of the House Human Services committee dismissed the report and the problem, saying, “there’s always going to be fraud,” and she refused to allow OLA to present its report to the committee. In addition, the chief House supporter of publicly funded child care subsidies criticized the OLA report for referencing prosecutions that had proven fraud in the child care program. The references were unnecessary and harmful, he said.
More.