patrick.net

The Minnesota child care fraud saga is so strange because years ago it was fully investigated, documented, and reported on by a team of state investigators set up to catch and stop child care fraud.

They spent years gathering evidence including many hours of surveillance footage. In 2018 they compiled a detailed report and delivered it to their boss, the DHS Inspector General.

Directly from the report: "Investigators, as well as the Supervisor and Manager of this unit believe that the overall fraud rate in this program is at least 50% of the $217M paid to child care centers in CY2017."

What did the Inspector General do with this information? She refused to meet with her own team, refused to discuss the findings of the report, and then spent $90,000 of taxpayer money to have an outside company write a report saying the fraud isn't quite as bad as her own team of investigators was claiming.

Here's an email summarizing the fraud that the lead investigator sent the IG in 2018. Those currently in the MSM claiming that child care fraud isn't a serious problem should read this.

The real question is how highly paid state investigators spent years investigating child care fraud in MN, reported on said fraud, and eight years later not only was the fraud not stopped, it was bigger than ever.