Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is responding for the first time to last week's scathing legislative audit on the state's role in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.
Governor Walz repeated several times in his response to the audit that the state can, and will, do better going forward.
A legislative audit found fraud complaints were not investigated and that the Department of Education failed in its duty to properly oversee millions of federal dollars that it administered during the pandemic.
Walz says context is important because everyone, for the most part was just trying to do the right thing.
"The amount of resources that were moving, and the sense of urgency around that, I was on buses where we were delivering, packing thousands of meals for kids, that folks were trying to do the right thing," Walz said.
Federal prosecutors have charged 70 people so far in the Feeding Our Future case, which bilked $250 million from the state.
There were also troubles with the Frontline Worker Pay program, the so called "Hero Pay" for those that worked on the frontlines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another audit found many who received checks from the state were not eligible.
"This wasn't malfeasance and in both of these cases, there's not a single state employee that was implicated in doing anything that was illegal," claims the governor. "They simply didn't do as much due diligence as they should have."
Walz told reporters Monday that context is important because there was an urgency to getting help to people, and in some cases requirements were lifted.
"Look, I'd be the first to tell you, there is always going to be somebody trying to commit fraud," says Walz. "The trick is to try and stay ahead of them. When we don't, these types of things happen. So we need to be as creative as we possibly can. We need to be as proactive as we possibly can to stop these folks from doing that."
WCCO Political Analyst Blois Olson tells The Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar that the answer from the governor isn't sufficient.
"I think those of us that are close to it get frustrated by that kind of answer," Olson says. "I think it's a strategy of the Walz Administration and specifically Tim Walz to say, 'is anybody going to lose their job?' The question wasn't did anybody commit malfeasance here, it's what are you going to do? How are you going to fix it? Are you upset? Should something change?"
Olson says while there has been some accountability from the administration, it isn't enough considering the cost to Minnesotans.
"Millions and millions and millions of dollars were able to not be accounted for or distributed fraudulently," Olson explained Tuesday morning. "He did not acknowledge that it's the reason Heather Mueller, the former Education Commissioner, lost her job, but it is thought to be a major factor she lost her job as commissioner in 2022. So I think there has been some accountability."
Olson adds that as governor, more accountability should come with administering these types of funds.
"The challenge for Walz is, there's no buck stops here," Olson said. "He's like, 'well, I do take some responsibility'. But if you're in a non-profit or a corporate job and these things happen, somebody would lose their job. I think that's where it doesn't align with simple accountability of competency."