House committee advances bill to create independent statewide inspector general for fraud oversight

Representative Patty Anderson brought House File 1 before the Minnesota House State Government Committee, urging creation of an independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the legislative branch to investigate fraud, misuse and provide oversight of state grant making.

Anderson said the office would be “absolutely not political” and “nonpartisan,” and described the proposal as modeled on the legislative auditor’s office and overseen by the Legislative Audit Commission. “Their job would be to investigate and combat fraud, misuse,” Anderson said.

The bill would consolidate many existing OIG functions that are currently housed in multiple state agencies, transfer some agency employees into the new office and re-create a fraud-reporting hotline and investigative capacity. Anderson said consolidation aims to reduce siloing between agencies and between executive-branch OIGs so investigators can share information about vendors and grantees across the enterprise.

Union and agency witnesses expressed concerns. Devin Bruce, director of legislative and political affairs for the Minnesota…