A local lawmaker is among the leaders in the MN House crafting new legislation aimed at cracking down on fraud.
District 29B State Representative Marion Rarick of Maple Lake spoke with other members of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee to present an overview of Governor Tim Walz’s proposed package on combating fraud.
Representative Rarick was among Republican House members who conducted a recent press conference, during which they addressed what they feel are some gaps in the governor’s proposals…
“If you want to know is taking fraud seriously, all you have to do is look at what he’s doing with the penalties. He’s increasing the top three highest staff categories by just 20 percent. That’s a drop in the bucket. You want to know how else I know he is not serious? Is the fact that he has included one forensic auditor, one new forensic auditor in the BCA, one. There’s 151 new full-time employees in DHS, and one forensic auditor at the BCA. This isn’t a serious proposal. I wish he was serious.”
Committee Chair, District 37A Representative Kristin Robbins of Maple Grove said that committee members are generally pleased to unveil the new whistleblower portal; www.mnfraud.com…
“We are thrilled to announce the new whistleblower portal, we would encourage Minnesotans to go to; www.mnfraud.com to share with us any credible allegations of fraud that they want to get to our attention, and then we can help either get back to them, or forward it on to the office of the Legislative Auditor…..and my understanding is that the BCA may be working on something as well, so, we want to change the culture by encouraging people to share with us what they see going on, and help us change it.”
Representative Rarick said in a recent press release that on-going meetings with whistleblowers across the state have been very illuminating in attempts at identifying and blocking fraud.
