LINO LAKES, Minn. – The state Senate education chair, Roger Chamberlain, blamed the state Education Department for the $250 million that crooks siphoned off a federal meals program. “MDE didn’t do their jobs,” said Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes. The funds, which originating in the U.S. Agriculture Department, were channeled through the state Minnesota Department of Education for further distribution to prepare meals for children and the elderly. Federal investigators have traced the actual fraud to a nongovernmental contractor by the name of Feeding Our Future. It’s believed $250 million was embezzled. Said Chamberlain: “The fraud was started and persisted because MDE failed to complete due diligence on these bad actors.” He acknowledged tat the department assisted in the federal investigation. “But,” he added, “it’s too little, too late.”
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Chamberlain. Points to Democratic Walz administration as negligent.