Agency accused of false reporting
Florida DCF to repay $17.5M after probe into food stamp data
In 2012, Florida’s Department of Children and Families boasted that it had won yet another multi-million-dollar bonus for having one of the nation’s lowest error rates in managing the federally funded food stamp program. Now it’s having to repay that $9.1 million — plus another $8.4 million — to resolve allegations that it made its numbers look better than they really were.
The department agreed to repay $17.5 million after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which said the state violated the federal False Claims Act by knowingly inflating its success in administering the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps.
In addition to the $17.5 million owed for bonuses from fiscal years 2011 and 2012, DCF also agreed to forego payment of $14.7 million in unpaid bonuses the USDA had awarded for fiscal years 2013 and 2014.
“While it is shocking these claims where submitted by the Florida Department of Children and Families, the state agency entrusted with assisting vulnerable and needy individuals, I commend the agency for correcting its conduct, cooperating with our investigation, and resolving its liability for its past actions,” said Joseph Harrington, the acting U.S. Attorney 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.”
DCF spokeswoman Mallory McManus said the errors resulted from the hiring of an outside consultant that had been recommended by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services division to improve quality control. The move, she said, resulted in the submission of “biased” data.
“The department has worked with the DOJ towards a settlement agreement to resolve potential liability — at a substantially lower payment than initially considered — to remedy issues under the [previous administrations],” McManus said in an email. “The policies reviewed for the settlement are no longer in place.”
According to DOJ documents, a violation of the False Claims Act requires knowledge that the claim
is false, “deliberate ignorance” of whether the information is true, or “reckless disregard” for the truth.
But the settlement doesn’t require DCF to acknowledge any wrongdoing, and it’s not the only state that has had to repay bonuses. Six others — Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas,
Louisiana, Alaska and Mississippi — have previously settled for manipulating SNAP quality control findings, allowing the federal government to recover over $60 million in the investigation.
The 2012 award to DCF marked the fifth year Florida received a bonus for managing the food stamp program, earning $39.3 million in all. Some of those funds went back into the administration of the program, while state lawmakers spent the rest of the bonus on unrelated matters.
The federal government left it to the winning states to decide how to use the money. It was not immediately clear where the funds would come from to repay the bonuses.
“SNAP provides important benefits to help families in need,” said Acting Assistant
Attorney General Brian Boynton of the DOJ’s civil division. “This settlement is an example of the department’s commitment to ensuring that taxpayer funds are spent appropriately so that the public can have confidence in the integrity of vital programs like SNAP.”
In 2019, SNAP helped feed more than 2.8 million Floridians.
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 ensure that eligibility decisions are accurate. The USDA reimburses states for a portion of their administrative expenses and can impose monetary penalties for states with high error rates.