As I’m sure many have seen, Governor Walz finally appointed Shireen Gandhi commissioner of the Department of Human Services (DHS). Until now, Gandhi had been serving as temporary commissioner for a full year. I’m sure many Minnesotans are now wondering what this all means. I want to let folks know the implications of this move.
Back in February 2025, Gandhi was appointed as temporary commissioner after our last commissioner retired, despite the enormous fraud we were already seeing. To be fair, we all recognized Gandhi was dealt a tough hand. DHS had been inundated with fraud for years prior to her appointment, and she came into the position at a turbulent time. But in her year of being the temporary commissioner, it feels as though we have made zero headway on fraud whatsoever. That’s a big problem, folks.
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With more fraud being uncovered every month, often…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.