Executive order establishes council to crack down on fraud in Minnesota
Gov. Tim Walz has issued an executive order aimed at cracking down on fraud in Minnesota by utilizing new data-sharing laws passed in the anti-fraud legislative package.
Multiple state agencies are included in the directive, which requires them to look at their data to identify, prevent, or eliminate fraudulent use of state funds, resources, or programs. If any fraud is suspected, they must report it to the Department of Revenue, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
"We have no tolerance for fraud in the State of Minnesota. Abuse of taxpayer dollars takes resources away from the people who need them most. If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you will be prosecuted and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. While we will continue to urge the legislature to take further action, this executive order gives our agencies additional tools to safeguard taxpayer dollars," said Walz.
The four-page document, issued on Wednesday, orders DPS authorities to lead a statewide council made up of various agency representatives with knowledge in program integrity, audit or internal controls. The council is then directed to meet every month and share investigative data and trends, as well as help agencies with auditing as needed.
The DHS has also been ordered to "publish information about program integrity actions taken by the agency" for public knowledge on how the agency is preventing fraud, waste and abuse.
It goes on to direct Inspector General James Clark to create a review program for Medicaid providers and claims, as well as identify high-risk providers, claims and service patterns through analytics and risk-scoring models. Additionally, Clark is being asked to identify DHS programs that pose a high risk of fraud, waste, and abuse.
The order says to disenroll all Minnesota Health Care Program-enrolled providers who haven't billed Medicaid within the past year, effective immediately, and to ask all state accounts for funds to help "modernize systems to better prevent and detect fraud and waste. The order also says to hire an external consultant "to assess DHS and make recommendations on reorganization."
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget has been ordered to create mandatory training on ethics, fraud prevention, waste and abuse for all state employees, do a review of existing state job classifications, lead a work group, create job-specific training and education standards and more.
Republican state Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, issued a statement after hearing about the order, which she says happened before Wednesday's hearing in the Minnesota House on fraud prevention and state agency oversight. She said Walz's order "falls far short of the reforms Minnesotans deserve."
"Decades of reports about the failures of internal controls at DHS have demonstrated they cannot police themselves. We need an independent executive branch OIG to hold them accountable," she added.