A whistleblower says they received almost no responses after reaching out to more than a dozen lawmakers in November, regarding an alleged scheme involving Maryland food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The whistleblower, a former senior official at the Department of Human Services, sent their email to 18 Democratic lawmakers, along with Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s Chief of Staff Lester Davis and the Office of Legislative Audits. The whistleblower said they never heard back from the governor’s office, or any of the lawmakers, except Democratic Sen. Cory McCray, who serves the whistleblower’s district in Baltimore City. McCray told Spotlight in an email, “Any correspondence received was forwarded to the appropriate parties for review.”
The alleged scheme, previously reported by Spotlight on Maryland, was to leave correctable payment errors uncorrected so the state could maintain a high error rate, making it possible to delay hundreds of millions of dollars in new federal penalties being imposed by the Trump administration, according to whistleblowers. One of the whistleblowers said they heard the alleged scheme discussed 10 or 11 times, but doesn’t know if the scheme was implemented after they left the department late last year.
The governor’s press secretary, Ammar Moussa, on Wednesday told Spotlight, “Whatever scheme was discussed, it was never implemented.”
Moussa’s previous response to questions about the alleged plan did not...
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