From a Tim Walz press release,
Governor Tim Walz today announced that Tim O’Malley will join the state as Director of Program Integrity. A judge, former superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), former FBI agent, and reformer in the archdiocese, O’Malley will work across state government to strengthen fraud prevention and protect taxpayer dollars.
Writing as a former energy czar for the State of Minnesota, I do love a good czar appointment. Today’s announcement by Walz includes a partnership with a third-party private vendor,
WayPoint, Inc. is a Minnesota-based professional service firm of former law enforcement and federal special agents, specializing in forensic accounting, financial investigations, due diligence, business risk mitigation, health care compliance and investigations, and tax litigation support.
Today’s announcement appears to be at least the third attempt by Walz to get ahead of the multi-billion-dollar, multiple-fraud scandal. He had previously issued anti-fraud executive orders in January and September, to little effect.
Nor is it clear how the duties assigned to the anti-fraud czar differ substantively from those that would have gone to the proposed statewide Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG proposal was shot down by a single vote by Democrats in the state legislature last session.
To make today’s announcement, Walz held a one-hour press event, which can be seen here. The Star Tribune headline,
Walz, moving to get ahead of fraud issue, taps new point man for state’s response
Developing…
