DeWine talks about battling daycare fraud after dismissing the concerns last month

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appeared on the Ohio Senate Republicans’ podcast, where he discussed combating daycare fraud in Ohio, even though he dismissed concerns from conservatives and his Republican colleagues just last month, claiming that everything is under control.

In a recent interview, DeWine said that the state has identified and stopped fraudulent activity in taxpayer-funded daycare programs.

“Yeah, we’ve caught fraud,” he said, mentioning that Ohio previously conducted inspections, audits, and system changes aimed at preventing abuse. He cited unannounced inspections, attendance-based payments, and new sign-in technology as evidence that the administration is actively addressing wrongdoing.

The latest remarks from DeWine contrast with his and his officials’ comments just last month.

For example, DeWine’s spokesman minimized concerns, characterizing fraud allegations as “unfortunately, the cost of doing business,” while emphasizing that the system was largely under control.

“If people are out there who could not contemplate that people were trying to defraud the public through day care centers, I understand it’s new to them … but it’s been known to the state for decades,” spokesperson Dan Tierney said. “So therefore, we have robust anti-fraud measures to try and stop this; this is something that is unfortunately the cost of doing business.”

Around the same time, DeWine’s administration released a statement on Ohio’s anti-fraud measures for the state’s taxpayer-funded daycares, claiming that they prevent fraud.

After that, DeWine held a press conference where he repeated the same talking points and stated that people are “not supposed to enter facilities” without authorization.

“To protect children in these daycare centers, Ohio requires facilities to have safety and security plans in place. They have these plans in place so that an adult cannot just walk into a facility without an appointment or without a child to pick up or drop off. That is there to protect the children,” DeWine said.

Even though he acknowledged during the press conference that fraud exists, he mostly downplayed it by saying that the state government doesn’t allow it to happen.

Last month’s comments came after DeWine’s Republican colleagues in Ohio began questioning the Somali community, claiming they are committing fraud in the state, just like they allegedly do in Minnesota.

To prevent future fraud, state leaders have introduced a new way for Ohioans to report fraud and launched “integrity reviews” of the state’s publicly-funded child care programs.

One Ohio daycare owner called the widespread fraud allegations “insulting,” arguing that such fraud is impossible because so many rules prevent people from abusing the system.

“My accountants would bust me before anybody,” Andy Hoffman, owner of Academy of Young Minds in Wadsworth, Ohio, said. “I can’t serve a single meal or enroll a child for a single day without paperwork. With the amount of oversight that exists, I don’t see how it’s possible without a blind eye being turned somewhere.”