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How MN's legislative auditor plans to stop fraud
FOX 9's Mike Manzoni sat down with Minnesota's legislative auditor about how the state plans on stopping fraud.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The state’s nonpartisan watchdog said her office is doing what it can to catch fraud, but said the state needs to do more.
Watchdog says state is ‘not stopping what it should be stopping’
Why you should care:
"It’s a big problem. It didn’t just happen overnight, and I don’t think there’s just one place to point," said Randall. "If we just put in place the internal controls that are already required – that alone is the single biggest thing we could do to help – to help stop the fraud that’s been occurring."
She said, "You cannot audit your way out of fraud," and said the state must do more to disincentivize it.,
"Don’t even give them the opportunity, right? They submit a receipt that doesn’t make sense, you say right away, ‘This doesn’t make sense.’ Okay, they just tested, and they said, ‘Oh, we can’t – that’s not easy pickings, right? So, we better not go there,’" she explained. "Then, they’re going to move onto somewhere else. So, it’s stopping it before it even gets a chance to start."
What her office is doing:
Randall said her office is working with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s new financial crimes unit to stop fraud in state programs.
She also said her office is now required to determine whether state agencies implement the recommendations her office makes. Randall said her staff of 70 produces between 15 and 20 audits per year but conceded that their reach has limits.
She said it is critical that the state better utilize internal controls to stop fraud.
Autism, housing programs recent targets of federal fraud probes
The backstory:
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced the first criminal charge in the scheme to defraud the state’s autism program out of $14 million.
The defendant, Asha Hassan, 28, was also involved in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, prosecutors said.
That scheme involved the theft of $250 million. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors announced what it described as the first wave of charges against eight suspects it said defrauded the state’s housing stabilization program.
DHS says it labeled autism program "high risk," stepped up screening
What the agency is saying:
In a statement on Wednesday, the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which oversaw the autism program, said it designated the program as "high risk" in May and began enhanced screening requirements for providers. It also said it implemented stricter billing requirements. In addition, the agency said it is moving more quickly to stop payments once fraud is suspected.
What's next:
In a report to legislators earlier this month, DHS, which also oversaw the housing stabilization program, said it had better internal controls to stop fraud, including expanded data analytics and the ability to stop payments faster.