Whistleblowers tell House committee DHS ignored fraud tips, suppressed investigations

Whistleblowers and former Department of Human Services staff told the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee on May 5 that long-standing program vulnerabilities allowed large-scale fraud in childcare and Medicaid and that some agency responses to reports were inadequate.

Faye Bernstein, who said she currently works at the Department of Human Services, told the committee DHS operates two major tip lines (an OIG line and a central office line) that are logged but also many smaller program-specific email addresses that are not. "We probably have too many tip lines," Bernstein said, adding that the multiplicity makes it hard for employees and the public to know where to call. She said smaller mailboxes are often not logged and that the agency sometimes replied with form letters rather than investigating alleged abuse.

Bernstein said she found messages that described sexual harassment and requests for sexual favors sent to a housing supports mailbox and said those allegations should have been escalated. "The Department of Human Services absolutely investigates allegations of abuse,"…