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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

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