Posted on 01/07/26
| News Source: FOX News
A major state audit in Minnesota conducted by the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor found widespread failures and internal control problems in the Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) grant program, reaffirming concerns about massive fraud issues.
The report, released on Monday, found that between July 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024, DHS dished out more than $425 million in grants to 830 organizations, the majority being nongovernmental, and did not show proper oversight in watching over those taxpayer funds, which in many cases were meant to help those with addiction and mental health issues.
The audit found missing progress reports and discovered BHA could not show it had completed all required monitoring visits and had no documentation at all for some of them.
Additionally, auditors discovered what appeared to be backdated or newly created documentation that did not exist before the audit, suggesting an effort to retroactively manufacture paperwork to show compliance.
In one instance, the report found that a grant manager approved over $600,000 in payments and later left the government agency to work for the grantee.
"The OLA report shows a complete breakdown in how DHS’s Behavioral Health Administration manages hundreds of millions in taxpayer-funded grants," Republican State Sen. Mark Koran said in a press release. "BHA failed to verify that grantees were providing the services they were paid for, failed to put basic financial controls in place, and then created documentation after the fact to mislead auditors.
"Minnesotans deserve integrity from state agencies. Fabricating evidence after an audit begins is unacceptable. It obstructs the OLA’s work and prevents DHS from correcting its failures. The finding that a DHS manager approved a large grant and later became a paid consultant for that same grantee is a blatant conflict of interest. This kind of misconduct erodes public trust and undermines the effectiveness of grant programs."