Minnesota Senate passes bill to establish Office of Inspector General
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The Minnesota Senate passed a bill Thursday that would establish a new spending oversight entity known as the Office of Inspector General.
Backers of the bill, which passed on a lopsided vote, is to cut down on fraud in state spending.
The bill is an outgrowth of the Feeding Our Future nutrition aid scandal that led to what prosecutors say was a $250 million siphoning of money away from food distribution into the pockets of people running a major scam.
“Today, we passed an extremely important bill, a necessary bill in the state of Minnesota,” said Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights. “It is a bill that establishes an Office of Inspector General. It is an independent oversight authority that will safeguard our taxpayer dollars to make sure they are going for what they are intended to use, and that they are being spent correctly.”
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She cosponsored the bill with Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine.
In a session where fraud has been a central topic, the bill got broad bipartisan support. It 60 to 7.
“It’s not a partisan issue. Minnesotans just simply won’t stand for this kind of fraud, and we need to do something about it,” Kreun said. “This is a good bill that has been thoroughly vetted, and we look forward to its implementation, getting this passed into law and so we can get fraud out of the headlines here in Minnesota.”
They say the new agency would track state spending and is authorized to track money that moves through private entities. An amendment to the bill added a law enforcement arm to take legal action in fraud cases.
The office would be set up in the executive branch to allow for that law enforcement ability. It would have subpoena power and could refer cases for criminal or civil action. It would also be able to make policy recommendations.
Appointments to the office would be made through a bipartisan process. A committee made up of equal members of parties from both chambers would put forward candidates to the governor, who can pick one of the candidates or choose their own. The governor’s pick would have to get support from three fifths of the Senate to be approved.
Kreun and Gustafson say they expect there would be about 30 people in the new office, with operational costs of around $8.9 million.
“Quite honestly, this office is going to save a lot more taxpayer dollars than it’s going to cost to get off the ground. So I think it’s a great deal for Minnesotans,” Kreun said.
A handful of members of the Senate raised concerns about whether oversight of the Department of Human Services could cause issues with federal dollars in Medicaid services. But both Kreun and Gustafson said they don’t believe it will, but also wrote the bill in a way that would allow for changes if that became an issue.
The House has yet to take action on a similar bill that has been advancing through committees.