Bipartisan Concerns Raised Over Minnesota Inspector General Office Job Postings

(KNSI) — Lawmakers from both parties are criticizing what they say are plans by the Walz administration to post jobs in the new Office of Inspector General before an inspector general is selected, but the governor’s office claims that’s not happening.

Republican Representatives Jim Nash and Tom Sexton released a statement saying, “Governor Walz continues to undermine the process of rooting out fraud in Minnesota, this time attempting to stock the independent Office of the Inspector General with Walz Administration loyalists who won’t take fraud seriously. This overreach is a deliberate attempt to paper over his legacy of fraud. With the process for appointing the Inspector General still unfinished, this is a calculated attempt to circumvent the independence of the office.”

Nash and Sexton are the House Republican representatives on the Legislative Inspector General Advisory Commission.

DFL Senator Aric Putnam of St. Cloud also spoke out on the matter. Putnam was a co-author of the law and also serves on the Legislative Inspector General Advisory Commission. “The Office of Inspector General was passed by the legislature to operate independent, free from political influence. The hiring process must respect that independence and preserve the authority of the Inspector to build the office as intended under the law. Decisions about the office’s leadership and structure should be left to the Inspector General once they are selected and confirmed by the Senate in 2027.”

A spokesperson for the governor’s office said the administration is not hiring for any positions within the office besides the Inspector General job itself.

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