“Troubling dysfunction at the Department of Human Services.” That’s the conclusion of a review of the state department from the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) released today. The review focuses on $29 million in over payments DHS made to the White Earth Nation and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe for clients in their opioid addiction treatment programs to self-administer medications at home. The review concludes DHS did not have legal authority to make the payments, did not document why, when and who decided it was appropriate to make the payments. The report goes on to say that no one at DHS takes responsibility for the decision and and no one at DHS can provide a rationale for the payments. ANCHOR TAG: The review finds “the dysfunction at DHS has created serious financial and legal problems for the state, the White Earth Nation, and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe” and concludes “those problems will be difficult to resolve.” You can read the full report here. Here is DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead’s statement in response to the OLA report:
“The guidance that was given to tribal governments was wrong and it is impossible for us to serve Minnesotans in a trustworthy way if they believe that their interactions with DHS could leave them on the hook for tens of millions of dollars. I am especially sorry that this error in the Department unfairly affected the tribal nations with whom Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan are working to restore trust and rebuild our government-to-government relationships. Based on the OLA report, this is clearly not an error caused by one individual or one commissioner. Instead, since the Walz/Flanagan Administration uncovered this error earlier this year, we have been setting to work to correct problems in the Department systems and processes that allowed such a costly error to take place and to ensure that we have protections in place for our partners in serving Minnesotans. I have put the Department’s Office of Continuous Improvement to work ensuring that our systems are adequately protecting our partners. While I do not dispute the Legislative Auditor’s assessment that current law requires the Department to work to recover funds in situations like this, it is my hope that the Legislature, the Department of Human Services and tribal governments can come together to agree on a solution to this problem. Any solution to an error made by the Department that punishes the Minnesotans receiving services, or the tribal governments that help us to administer those services would be unfortunate.”