An internal audit at the Minnesota Department of Human Services has found several violations of laws designed to prevent fraud, waste and abuse in the branch responsible for a recent series of improper payments.
The agency’s behavioral health division, which was responsible for $29 million in overpayments to two Indian bands and $70 million in improper payments to chemical dependency providers, skirted state laws on contracting and conflicts of interest, according to the report, which was released Tuesday.
None of the violations involved multimillion dollar payment errors, but most revealed failures to follow rules designed to prevent bigger problems from happening. The audit was conducted in response to several complaints lodged internally. Agency auditors substantiated five of the nine alleged violations.