Office of the Legislative Auditor - Financial Audit Division

Report Summary
Department of Human Services
Federal Compliance Audit

 

Financial Audit Division Report 13-15

Released July 11, 2013

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Conclusion

The Department of Human Services generally complied with and had internal controls to ensure compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grants applicable to its major federal programs for fiscal year 2012. However, as noted in the OLA Report on Information Verification in Eligibility Determinations, the department did not comply with (and did not have adequate internal controls to comply with) federal eligibility requirements for the Medical Assistance Program.¹ In addition, the department had other weaknesses, as noted in findings 1 through 9 in the following Findings and Recommendations section (including four repeat findings from last year’s audit that were not fully resolved² ).

Key Findings

• Prior Finding Partially Resolved: The Department of Human Services did not fully implement controls to ensure it complied with eligibility requirements for two federal programs and did not monitor system overrides for three major programs.
• Prior Finding Not Resolved: The Department of Human Services did not fully identify, analyze, and document its internal controls related to compliance with federal single audit requirements.
• Prior Finding Partially Resolved: The Department of Human Services did not adequately monitor the counties’ efforts to detect fraudulent child care payments and ensure they properly recovered the payments.
• The Department of Human Services did not request about $139 million from the federal government over several years for Medical Assistance Program costs incurred by the state to administer the program.
• The Department of Human Services did not consistently reduce recipients’ cash assistance benefits when the recipient refused to cooperate with child support enforcement requirements.

Audit Scope

Our scope included programs determined to be major federal programs for the State of Minnesota for fiscal year 2012, including Medicaid Cluster, Children’s Health Insurance Program, Child Support Enforcement, Child Care Cluster, Social Services Block Grant, Foster Care, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Food and Nutrition Services Cluster.

 

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¹ Office of the Legislative Auditor’s Financial Audit Division Report 13-05, Department of Human Services, issued March 26, 2013.

² Office of the Legislative Auditor’s Financial Audit Division Report 12-07, Department of Human Services, issued March 29, 2012.