Federal courts in New Mexico are appointing a special master to oversee the state’s welfare program to reform the alleged institutional fraud within the state health department.
The special master will be in charge of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food stamps, as well as the Medicaid program. Both welfare benefits are federally funded, but managed by state departments.
Federal courts will name the special master, who will be independent of Human Services Department Secretary Brent Earnest, Judge Kenneth Gonzales said in his order creating the position, reported by the Albuquerque Journal.
“The special master will be accountable only to the Court and will not be supervised by Plaintiffs or the HSD Secretary,” Gonzales’ order says. Though HSD will pay for the special master’s salary, he or she “will not be an employee of the State,” Gonzales added.
Courts created the position after allegations of institutionalized fraud from eight former HSD employees, who claim their bosses told them to falsify food stamps applications in order to justify overpayment of benefits, according to the NM Political Report.
The special master has not yet been named, but federal courts believe the position will able to bring the state’s food stamps program into into compliance with federal law. Within a few months of starting the position, the special master must submit a proposal for departmental reforms which will include a budget, and how much the department will pay for consultants, administrative and technical employees.
The special master position “will ensure that HSD has much needed expertise and oversight to provide food and medical assistance efficiently and accurately,” Sovereign Hager, an attorney with the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, told the New Mexico Political Report.
HSD was accused in a federal lawsuit by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, and others, of falsifying food stamp records to disqualify applicants from receiving benefits, as well as overpaying millions to ineligible recipients.(RELATED: New Mexico Food Stamp Director Removed During Ongoing Lawsuit)
HSD is currently under investigation by New Mexico state auditors, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for paying out millions in fraudulent welfare claims, and the department had to be gutted earlier this year.(RELATED: New Mexico Food Stamp Program Faces Federal Investigation)
The food stamps program is one of the biggest federal welfare benefits in the country, with more than 43 million people receiving benefits. The USDA spent around $75 billion on the program in 2015.
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