Walz appoints Shireen Gandhi to lead embattled Department of Human Services

Gov. Tim Walz wants Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi to continue leading the Minnesota Department of Human Services, an embattled state agency facing enormous pressure to safeguard its programs against fraud.

The governor formally appointed Gandhi to the top spot on Monday, Feb. 23, a little more than a year after she started running the state agency under her limited title.

Walz said Gandhi “understands that protecting public programs and delivering high-quality care go hand in hand.”

“Over the past year, she has demonstrated steady, decisive leadership at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, strengthening program integrity, rooting out fraud, and ensuring taxpayer dollars reach the Minnesotans who rely on these services,” the governor said in a statement.

Gandhi said in the news release that she looks “forward to working with all partners across the human services system to make our state a national model for program integrity.”

Gandhi joined the social services department in 2017, working in administration as a chief compliance officer and then as a deputy commissioner. She came to the state agency after a career in health care public relations and later as a compliance professional with a law degree.

Gandhi stepped into her current role when her predecessor, Jodi Harpstead, resigned last year. Harpstead started the job months before the COVID-19 pandemic and spent five years overseeing the sprawling agency. Harpstead’s departure came as the department, which oversees the most spending of any state agency, was in the middle of transitioning into smaller state agencies.

With Walz’s term ending January 2027, Gandhi might have less than a year left on the job. Incoming governors often appoint new commissioners.

Last year, federal investigators who uncovered Minnesota’s massive Feeding Our Future scam said they identified another pattern of program abuse said to be in the billions of dollars, though state leaders say they’ve yet to uncover such a wide scope. Since then, prosecutors have charged 15 people with duping state housing and autism care programs out of about $34.2 million.

A Minnesota Star Tribune review of fraud cases stemming from a few state programs found more than $200 million in alleged fraud.

Walz tapped Gandhi to lead the agency to address fraud concerns while ensuring continuity of the care providers deliver to some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable residents. A number of providers and advocates have raised concerns about the state’s recent sweeping fraud crackdown interrupting care for some who need help.

The DHS oversees health care programs and services for people with disabilities, older adults and others in need. The agency has a $25 billion annual budget and about 2,300 employees.

For instance, the state more frequently withholds payments on grounds of suspicion, installed a more thorough payment-review process, paused provider applications in its high-risk Medicaid programs and eliminated one especially vulnerable program providing housing services.