ST. PAUL, Minn. — The findings of a three-month investigation into fraud at state agencies has found no evidence of embezzlement by anyone in state government. The findings are from Judge Tim O’Malley, who in December was asked by Governor Tim Walz to conduct an external review of government practices. Among O’Malley’s conclusions and recommendations:
> No government officials we have broken any law.
> Instructions to agencies to install program integrity rules go back 50 years but were never as strong as they needed to be.
> Integrity plans enacted by agencies over the years fraud weren’t executed effectively.
> Fraudsters must be forced to give back ill0gitten gains.
> The state needs an independent fraud watchdog agency for oversight, staff training and enforcement to combat fraud.
O’Malley’s recommendations — “Pillars of Reform,” he called them — will go to the governor, to legislators and state agencies.
Verbatim
O’Malley: “I have not found any evidence that there was corruption within the government. There’s well-intended people who for a number of weren’t effective in what they tried to do.”