Why is Gov. Tim Walz dropping his reelection campaign? Because you don’t commit billions of dollars in fraud in a small state (the federal government is another matter) without having an inside track. An audit is now uncovering not just fraud, but fraud to cover up fraud.
An audit of the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Administration grant programs found “widespread failures in oversight,” according to a state watchdog.
The Office of the Legislative Auditor says the department “did not comply with most requirements tested for mental health and substance use disorder grants and did not have adequate internal controls over grant funds.”
According to the audit, the Department of Human Services distributed more than $425 million in grants to 830 grantees between July 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024.
Of 51 grant agreements, the report says more than half of the progress reports were missing or past due. The agency also could not prove that it completed 27 of 67 required monitoring visits, and for 24 visits involving 11 grantees, it could not provide any documentation.
One auditor noted that several documents were created by the Behavioral Health Administration only after the audit began and had been backdated in response to document requests.
That last part shows what we’re dealing with here is not just egregious incompetence, but fraud on the inside. Backdating documents for an audit is a criminal conspiracy.
I don’t expect Minnesota authorities to pursue criminal charges, but federal prosecutors should, and if they do, it might help uncover the ‘missing link’ between the scam artists and the bureaucrats.
