Committee advances bill to create legislative Office of Inspector General after amendment fight

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The State Government and Policy Committee on Feb. 18 advanced House File 1, a measure that would create an Office of Inspector General (OIG) located under the Legislative Audit Commission to investigate fraud, waste and abuse tied to state funds.

The billauthor, identified in committee as Representative Anderson, described the proposal as the statefraud bill and said it would place an independent investigative office "within, under the Legislative Audit Commission." The committee approved the bill as amended and referred it to the Human Services and Finance Policy committee.

Supporters and the bill author said the Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) provides a bipartisan, bicameral and nonpartisan oversight structure and argued the office should be placed there to preserve independence. Representative Anderson said the Legislaturehas already seen large-scale fraud and that a new office could improve oversight. "House file 1 is, essentially we call it the fraud bill. It creates the Office of Inspector General, within, under the Legislative Audit Commission," the author told the committee.

Opponents and some members pressed several recurring concerns: whether the OIG should be exempt from the formal rulemaking process, how broad the officewould be, whether it would duplicate existing agency OIGs, how staff would be classified, and the scope of data access the OIG would have. Nonpartisan staff explained that entities in the legislative branch do not typically follow Chapter 14…