Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, shared on Wednesday that whistleblower tips that come to GOP leadership have not been forwarded on to the Department of Human Services.

Instead, Robbins said they’re being sent to other investigators, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“To date, we have not because there is no trust,” said Robbins, R-Maple Grove. “They’ve had the power to investigate for at least seven years — longer — and the whistleblowers come to me after they’ve already been to the department, after they’ve already been to the attorney general, and they’ve been generally ghosted.”

The House Fraud Prevention Committee, which has a Republican majority, setup a new whistleblower hotline earlier this year.

Robbins said there are “hundreds” of tips that have been received through the hotline.

“When I get credible allegations of fraud from whistleblowers, we meet with them, we interview them, we ferret out as much as possible,” Robbins said.

“If Chair Robbins has in fact uncovered legitimate concerns of fraud — a claim for which there is no evidence — then her top priority should have been to get them investigated and, if warranted, get payments stopped,” said Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul. “Her deliberate choice instead to prioritize political theater and let the funds keep flowing is another example of her choosing to put her partisan political ambitions above those of Minnesota taxpayers.”

After the committee meeting on Wednesday, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked Minnesota DHS Inspector General James Clark, who is tasked with stopping fraud in taxpayer-funded safety net programs, about the tips not being shared with his office.

“I want to work in partnership with anybody that is serious about tackling these issues,” Clark said. “If you have evidence I can use to stop payments going to fraudsters, I would like that information.”