There can’t be a single agency of Tim Walz’s administration that is not corrupt. Today, it is the Behavioral Health Administration, the subject of a just-released report by Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor. At some point, mere incompetence can’t explain the comprehensive, systemic failure that we have seen for years in the Walz administration.
My colleague Bill Walsh explains the latest Walz scandal:
The Office of the Legislative Auditor released a scathing audit of the grant making process at yet another Minnesota Human Services program, the Behavioral Health Administration (BHA). BHA is supposed to administer grants to provide prevention, treatment, and recovery services for individuals with mental health conditions or substance use disorders. … Auditors found nothing but problems with the way BHA was handing out the money. In fact, they told a legislative committee Tuesday that BHA “did not comply with most requirements we tested.”
Beyond the structural problems with their grant making process, two bombshell revelations came out in the audit.
First, an employee of BHA approved a grant for $672,647.78 to a grantee and then immediately started working for them after approving the payment!
Good old-fashioned corruption. And more corruption:
Second, the auditor said BHA staff were manipulating documentation during the audit, even backdating forms to fool the auditors!
So now Walz employees are faking documents to try to fool auditors. Faking documents, just like the fraudsters who have been stealing taxpayers blind for years. In Minnesota, countless financial crimes have been committed with impunity, I suspect because criminals understand that the Walz administration is on their side and they have little to fear.
In his bizarre news conference earlier today, Tim Walz vowed that, while he has been barred by his party from seeking re-election, he will not resign as governor. I think it is time to start the countdown. Can Walz last out the year before he is forced to resign in disgrace?
