Trio of measures to fight fraud on the docket at Minnesota Legislature
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Fighting fraud will be front and center for lawmakers at the Minnesota State Capitol on Tuesday.
Legislators will be taking up a trio of GOP-backed bills aimed at cracking down on criminals stealing hundreds of millions of your taxpayer dollars.
Republicans unveiled these proposals weeks ago, but now that the House is in order, a proper committee can hear them.
Here's a refresher on how lawmakers are hoping to protect your taxpayer dollars.
One of the bills would create stricter reporting requirements if a state agency employee suspects fraud.
Another proposal would establish a new annual report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor detailing if agencies have followed the office's recommendations to boost internal controls to help prevent fraud.
A third proposal would boost protections for whistleblowers who expose fraud.
The House state government committee is set to take up these bills at 8:15 a.m.
At 12:30p.m., a Senate panel will hear a bipartisan proposal to establish a new Office of Inspector General to be the watchdog for state agencies.
Also at 12:30 p.m., the Senate GOP is expected to share more details about their package of proposals to tackle fraud.
The anti-fraud push at the capitol follows two recent high-profile cases of people stealing hundreds of millions from state programs intended to help children. Dozens were charged in the $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme and more recently, federal investigators accuse two autism centers of billing Medicaid for bogus claims.
