Minnesota House scrutinizes Walz’s fraud prevention plan: ‘Where’s the accountability?’

Minnesota lawmakers raised doubts about Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) legislative anti-fraud package at a state House oversight hearing on Monday, questioning whether the governor’s proposals would actually detect and prevent scammers from defrauding the state’s taxpayer-funded programs.

Throughout the hearing, members of the GOP-led Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee grilled officials in Walz’s administration on how they exactly intend to execute his 18 proposed measures, which would require millions of dollars each year to implement.

Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi, the Walz appointee who oversaw financial operations at the Minnesota Department of Human Services when organized scam rings stole millions in Medicaid funds from the state social services agency, stood by her boss’s $54 million fraud-prevention plans.

“Gov. Walz has put forward a strong set of program integrity proposals that tighten oversight across the life cycle of the Medicaid program,” Gandhi told the state