Today Senate Republicans held a press conference to respond a devastating report from the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) reviewing Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) oversight of the nonprofit Feeding our Future. The report found MDE’s oversight of Feeding Our Future to be inadequate and that, “MDE’s actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud.”

The OLA report had three themes:

• MDE failed to act on warning signs known to the department prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to the start of the alleged fraud
• MDE did not effectively exercise its authority to hold Feeding Our Future accountable to program requirements
• MDE was ill-prepared to respond to the issues it encountered with Feeding Our Future

“In 2022, Senate Republicans held three hearings to get to the bottom of the Feeding our Future scheme that was rocking headlines and eroding the trust of Minnesotans,” Senate Minority Mark Johnson (R- East Grand Forks) said. “Today, the OLA report demonstrates we are completely vindicated with our concerns and assessment that MDE failed to do even the most basic of accountability measures to protect taxpayers’ dollars and ensure food meant to feed children reached the children who needed it.”

A Republican-led 2022 Senate Education Committee issued a report after several hearings with MDE staff and Commissioners that had essentially the same three findings as the OLA:

• MDE did not follow related state and federal law
• MDE practiced questionable business practices that would seldom survive in a work environment that provided real accountability
• MDE lacked administrative direction and seems divorced from reality and what was demanded of it

“The lack of action from MDE is completely unacceptable and brings to light just how deep the failure to abide by requirements within the Department runs,” Senator Mark Koran (R- North Branch) said. “MDE had everything it needed to shut Feeding our Future down before COVID hit, yet they approved them for funding anyway.”

“In order to prevent future instances of rampant fraud such as this, we must strengthen our oversight and implement robust measures to protect taxpayer dollars,” Koran continued. “Continuing down the path of retroactively addressing these issues while failing to focus on prevention measures is inexcusable. Minnesota taxpayers and hungry children were robbed of $250 million, and we must ensure nothing like this happens again.”

Earlier this week, a separate audit report showed the OLA could not verify about 41% of Frontline Worker Pay bonuses made in 2023, resulting in about $205 million unverified payments. Previous OLA reports have found $3.5 million in overpayments through the RentHelp program, and millions of fraudulent dollars through DHS programs for child care assistance, adult day care centers, opioid treatment, and more.

“Nothing changes, if nothing changes,” Johnson said. “Either Governor Walz starts to hold his politically appointed commissioners and their staff accountable, or the waste, fraud, and abuse of the taxpayers’ dollars will continue. In the meantime, government spending will go up, services will be wasted, and Minnesotans will be left wondering just whether or not the high taxes they pay are being put to their best use.”

The Legislative Audit Commission, a bicameral group, will review the OLA report in a public hearing at 1 pm today.