Clips - Commissioner Harpstead Presents Review of Human Services Department

Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead presented her 90-day review of the department to members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday, December 10. Harpstead was appointed by Governor Tim Walz with the charge of addressing various departmental problems, including overpayments of federal funds to Indian tribes and counties for combatting addiction; payments of fraudulent child care assistance claims; and the resignations of key departmental personnel.

According to Harpstead, the Department of Human Services is "not in a free fall, in crisis, in total chaos." She explained that the total amount of inappropriate payments over the past six years totaled $106.5 million dollars, or .1 percent of the $96.1 billion dollars of payments made. She said the department will attempt to recoup the money and that process controls have been implemented, "because every dime matters."

In addition to continuing their oversight of the department, committee chair Senator Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, said that she will begin the work of examining a possible breakup of the agency by reviewing a 2013 report issued by Minnesota Management and Budget on the department's restructuring.