USDA
United States Department of Agriculture
Office ofthe Secretary
‘Washington, D.C. 20250
SUN 15 2015
TO: Phyllis K. Fong
Inspector General
USDA Office of Inspector General
‘Amn Coffey
Assistant Inspector General for Investigations
USDA Office of Inspector General
FROM: Kevin W. Concannon ~ UD Conwiei
Under Secretary Kean
Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
SUBJECT: Investigation Request
This letter is to formally request that your office conduct an in-depth investigation of the New
Mexico Department of Human Serviee’s (NMDHS) administration of the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). NMDHS is the State agency which administers SNAP in
New Mexico on behalf of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
We have become aware of significant irregularities found in NMDHS's certification process, and
are aware of allegations which, if demonstrated to be true, could represent fraudulent criminal
activity on the part of State agency staff. Specifically, there are allegations of State employees
falsifying certification records by adding assets to submitted SNAP applications so that
applicants don’t qualify for expedited service application processing to which they are entitled.
FNS has been working with New Mexico for some time now to address long-standing issues
with NMDHS’s administration of SNAP. The particular allegations noted above, however,
represent potential criminal activities which are outside the authority of FNS to prosecute, but
whieh I believe your office is uniquely positioned to pursue. To that end, I respectfully submit
this request for your office to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged.
iregularities.
Please let me know if there are any questions concerning this request.
‘An Eaual Oppounty Employee