The new head of Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) Jodi Harpstead made an official apology in front of the House of Representatives for the department’s misspending of $106 million due to billing errors.
In her report on her first 90 days in office that she read on Dec. 2, Harpstead stated that the DHS is currently working on putting procedures in place to make sure a large amount of money being mishandled will never happen again.
Many of the Representatives, however, doubted Harpstead’s apology was sincere and were unsure if the DHS could prevent such a large scale accident to happen again, as first reported by WCCO 4.
“I am looking for that P.J. Fleck moment where somebody says the buck stops with me,” Rep. Barb Haley (R-Red Wing) said according to WCCO, referring to when Gopher football head coach Fleck accepted full responsibility for his team’s loss that previous weekend to Wisconsin.
“Let me say it now, the buck stops right here,” Harpstead said per WCCO. “...We are planning to use the best processes that we know that have been proven in other organizations to tackle these issues.”
Last month, the DHS released invoices to several of Minnesota’s largest counties requiring them by law to pay a total of $9 million in order to repay for its mistakes. Many counties are objecting to pay their dues, which range from more than $400,000 to $2 million.
Harpstead additionally revealed that there were no consequences for the fraud charges against former Inspector General Carolyn Ham, who was responsible for preventing fraud in a day care program that an audit discovered fraud in.
The representatives were not happy to hear this news during the meeting.
“For us to hear that during this committee hearing was shocking,” said Rep. Anne Neu (R-North Branch), as reported by WCCO.
The House repeatedly informed Harpstead that the DHS can only regain their trust “over an extensive period of time.”
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