Weak oversight of community group contracts awarded after George Floyd’s death created risk of improper payments
As Minnesota’s massive fraud problems continue to gain nationwide attention, an audit is now sounding the alarm about potential fraud in a new area in the state related to contracts doled out by the city of Minneapolis in response to the death of George Floyd.
More than 100 contracts were handed out to community groups as alternatives to policing in 2020 and the lax oversight of those contracts, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune report, was found by an audit to be susceptible to fraud and favoritism.
The new Neighborhood Safety Contract Management Audit Report, which reviews spending from 2020-2025, shows the city is “not providing sufficient contract oversight or managing contracts effectively” in order to properly manage the more than $36 million that has been spent since 2023 on five major violence-prevention programs.
The report warns that Minneapolis’ weak contract controls created a heightened risk of fraud and improper payments. Auditors found contractors often submitted invoices with limited supporting documentation, while the city sometimes continued making payments despite missing records or unresolved concerns. The department is also said to have lacked a standardized process for conducting and documenting site visits to verify that contracted services were actually being performed.