Minnesota House Fraud Committee pushing for stronger laws around kickbacks
Minnesota lawmakers want to know why state officials can't immediately shut down child care programs if kickbacks or fraud are uncovered.
The Minnesota House Fraud Committee is part of the effort to prevent state tax dollars from being misused, as alleged in the Feeding Our Future funding scheme.
Shireen Gandhi, the temporary commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, told the committee the state agency has made it easier to root out fraud, but Republican committee members seized on roadblocks that still exist.
State Sen. Pattie Anderson, R-Dellwood, asked Gandhi whether the agency has the authority to prohibit kickbacks.
"As for kickbacks, that is a federal rule, and it's my understanding [that] we do not have the authority in state statute," Gandhi said.
Democratic Rep. Dave Pinto, a former prosecutor, acknowledged that tightening state statutes around kickbacks is needed.
"What they have identified is to have a really clear state criminal charge, that there is some cleanup to be done to have those elements," Pinto said.
Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, who is the committee's chair, says the hearing left her concerned about existing loopholes to counter fraud.
"This hearing put them on notice that we are expecting them to follow. They have fairly robust tools already and they should be employing them," Robbins says.
The committee is in the process of drafting legislation designed to make it easier to root out fraud at the agency.
The group also heard bullet points from the governor's anti-fraud proposal, which calls for the prevention of kickbacks, electronic attendance systems designed to determine exactly how many kids are obtaining services and measures to make it easier to suspend payments.
