In recent years the Minnesota Legislature has increasingly relied on sending money to nonprofit organizations to help carry out initiatives ranging from housing to homelessness to crime reduction strategies. Along with that new reliance comes uncertainty and accountability questions regarding how the money is spent.

In 2023, the Minnesota Legislative Auditor issued a report saying, in part, they found “pervasive noncompliance with Office of Grant Management (OGM) policies by state agencies in recent years, signaling issues with accountability and oversight.”

Now that they have a share of power in a tied Minnesota House, the GOP caucus plans a new focus on accountability and timely reports from nonprofits.

“The problem when we’re not getting these reports on time is we don’t know how that money is being spent,” says Rep. Lisa Demuth, (R) House Speaker-Designate. “Has it been disbursed? Is there potential fraud?”

In most cases, there isn’t fraud. However, headlines have been filled with fraud cases ranging from “Feeding our Future” to autism programs.

House Republicans have a running list of nonprofits that are nearly a year overdue in filing reports about how they’ve spent grant money. Legislation authorizing grant money usually comes with a requirement to make timely reports to the legislature about the funding.

”Why should we be continuing to allocate tax dollars to these organizations when they’re not willing to come back and give us the information that was asked for?” Demuth asked in an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. For instance, the House GOP list shows the Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation (MMCDC) was allocated $100 million in 2023 to help first-time homebuyers buy homes.

The bill authorizing the funds came with a deadline of reporting to the legislature by Jan. 15, 2024, about how the money was spent. MMCDC still hasn’t filed a report.

However, the president of the MMCDC says they didn’t sign a contract with the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency until May 1, 2024, and didn’t receive the first $8 million in funding until June, six months after they were supposed to issue a report.

That raises other questions about why some state funding takes so long to get to Minnesotans who need it. That is one other thing House Republicans say they plan to focus on in the 2025 legislative session.