The Justice Department issued the following statement.
The Mississippi Department of Health Services (MDHS) has agreed to pay the United States $5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act in its administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Department of Justice announced today. Until 2008, SNAP was known as the Food Stamp Program.
“SNAP is an important vehicle for helping families in need,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “This settlement is another example of the Department’s commitment to protecting taxpayer funds and the vital programs that they support.”
“Although it is appalling that these actions occurred within a state agency entrusted with assisting vulnerable and needy residents, I am heartened that MDHS has resolved its liability and cooperated with our investigation,” said U.S. Attorney William D. Hyslop for the Eastern District of Washington. “Together with our partners in the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the USDA, we will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who misuse and wrongfully obtain SNAP funding.”
“We appreciate the commitment and investigative assistance provided by our partners at the Department of Justice’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office throughout this multi-state investigation,” said Special Agent in Charge Bethanne M. Dinkins of the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG). “We also wish to note the technical assistance provided by our colleagues in the Office of Audit at OIG. During the investigation, conducted by OIG’s Northeast Regional Office, we worked together to address the concerns of employees of multiple states and others who alleged that the integrity of the SNAP quality control process was weakened by third-party consultants. These concerned individuals reported that cases were not being treated in a consistent manner, and that certain advice from consultants resulted in identified errors being diminished rather than used to improve eligibility determinations. The settlements reached to date send a strong message regarding the government’s commitment to work across agency lines to protect the integrity of SNAP.”
Under SNAP, USDA provides eligible low-income individuals and families with financial assistance to buy nutritious food. Since 2010, SNAP has served on average more than 45 million Americans per month, and provided more than $71 billion annually.
Although the federal government funds SNAP benefits, it relies on the states to determine whether applicants are eligible for benefits, to administer those benefits, and to perform quality control to ensure that eligibility decisions are accurate. The USDA requires that the states’ quality control processes ensure that benefits are correctly awarded, are free from bias, and accurately report states’ error rates in making eligibility decisions.
The USDA reimburses states for a portion of their administrative expenses in administering SNAP, including expenses for providing quality control. It also pays performance bonuses to states that report the lowest and the most improved error rates each year, and can impose monetary sanctions on states with high error rates that do not show improvement.
The settlement resolves allegations that beginning in 2012, MDHS contracted with a consultant known as Julie Osnes Consulting, LLC (Osnes Consulting) to provide advice and recommendations designed to lower its SNAP quality control error rate. The United States alleged that Osnes Consulting’s recommendations, as implemented by MDHS, injected bias into MDHS’s quality control process and resulted in MDHS submitting false quality control data and information to USDA, for which it received undeserved performance bonuses for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.
This is the seventh settlement in this matter, and the sixth settlement with a state agency for manipulating its SNAP quality control findings. The United States has reached previous settlements with state agencies in Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, as well as with Osnes Consulting and its owner, Julie Osnes. Including this settlement, the United States has now recovered over $41 million in connection with this investigation.
The settlement was the result of a joint investigation conducted by the USDA-OIG, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington, and the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch. The investigation arose out of a nationwide audit of SNAP Quality Control processes by the USDA-OIG. The claims resolved by the civil settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Mississippi to Repay $5 Million in Food Stamp Consulting Fraud
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19 comments:
Another scandal under Phil Bryant's rule....hmmmmmm
The lives of the poor never mattered to Phil Bryant and his ilk.
@1:42p- Give it a break, already. It's all connected. The DHS leadership, the theft, the deception... it's been in the news for weeks.
$5M is a JOKE!! They should dissolve ALL the assets of every person and company involved, THEN make them pay any remaining balance, THEN send them all to jail. EVERY SINGLE TAXPAYER PENNY should be returned from these crooks, including the funds received through this false reporting AND the settlement amount.
Will the commenters on this blog ever get to the point where we aren't taking cheap political shots? For every crooked elephant there's a crooked donkey. ALL POLITICIANS become failures of the people. They ALWAYS sell out for donations, greed, and power. ALWAYS! They ALWAYS put their cronies in high place... ALWAYS! They are ALL CORRUPT on some level!! What is the point of the cheap shots?
Everything was just perfect under Twinkle Toes Musgrove.
Cheap shots are fun and entertaining sometimes and are a welcome distraction...and deserved.
2:03 - run for political office and be the change.
Reminder me how much money was stolen during Musgroves term.
NEVER forget this- Bryant's legal advisor was ALWAYS his daughter.
Was this more TANF money that the News stole?
Wish somebody would read the actual press release. This is not "Food Stamp Fraud" even (despite the click-bait headline). It is consultant fraud: Julie Osnes sold Mississippi and a half-dozen other states a bill of goods about how she could help them keep their quality control numbers down. That number has to do with the number of people who were NOT awarded SNAP benefits or who were REMOVED from the SNAP program. The fraud was that in the process she (and the States she advised) overstated the amount of denials or removals of people from the SNAP rolls, thus inflating the State of Mississippi "quality control" number. This is another case of an agency being duped by a highly-paid consultant (who settled with the feds herself to the tune of $750,000). So stop lumping this in with the TANF issues -- not even the same program.
@ 4:03
Bryant’s staff attorney wasn’t his daughter. It was not of the new Deputy AGs
@ 4:03
Bryant’s staff attorney wasn’t his daughter. It was one of the new Deputy AGs
Not the big one
I voted for Phil Bryant. He will go down as one of the worst governor's in this state's history and that is saying A LOT.
"Performance Bonuses"???
Who Knew?
You know I keep hearing the New's name mentioned a lot along with King Phil. Yet, I've seen no proof of their deliberate wrongdoing. I've known the News and Phil Bryant about the same number of years, since I am a long time resident of Rankin County.
I do think Howdy Doody Shad White has followed King Phil blindly down a path that will ruin his career. Maybe if he got his head out of Phil's...well we all know. Funny how corruption keeps following the state's former leader. I use the term leader loosely.
I’ve said from the beginning this thing is going to lead back to Phil. The story out there against the News makes no sense. None of it adds up. If they are gearing up for a fight as the rumors suggest, I hope they expose everyone. At the end of the day, I bet you see Phil, Joey Songy, John Davis, several MDHS Deputy Directors, a lobbyist and a wanna be lobbyist all implicated in this thing before it’s said and done.
@4:19 I would add the Auditor to your list too. I think this blows up in his face and when it does, he’ll blame it on the DA to try and cover himself. Question is, does he turn on Phil?
So relieved to see the above comments. Follow the money, The USM donations, the sports figures /athletes involved and the investments in the medical field seem like Phil/type ideas. The Bryants never missed a chance to promote and take photos for PR with the News and their business. He sure is quiet now. He sure isn’t standing up for Nancy New.i don’t need Best Friends like that at all. Sure seems fishy to me. Ke digging and Shad, if you read these posts, expose The Bryant’s if they are guilty! Do your job , no matter who is guilty.
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