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HUMAN
\lRVICES

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

MEMORANDUM OF INVESTIGATIVE ACTIVITY

On May 13, 2016 Senior Special Agent (SSA) Sarina Lopez and SSA Steven Teague, New
Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), conducted an
interview of
, HSD ISD FAA Senior at the West Dona Ana County office
JR
employee. The interview was conducted at JR s place of employment located at 655 Utah
Ave, Las Cruces, New Mexico. SSA Lopez and SSA Teague identified themselves to JR
verbally and by show of their credentials. The purpose of the interview was being conducted in
connection with an official OIG investigation into allegations that the Income Support Division
(ISD) was entering false information on recipient's cases to avoid sanctions from the federal
goverrunent. JR was advised that the interview was being recorded (recording attached
hereto) and that her statement was voluntary. Also attending the meeting was JR 's union
representative, Chris Armijo. JR in summary, stated the following:

JR did not object to the recording of the interview. JR l's work number is
Home phone 5
.
DOB:
, mailings address
SSN:
. SA Lopez read JR her Weingarten Rights.
JR stated at a union meeting they were talking about a grievance that occurred
regarding late expedites. During the union meeting, JR was asked what the current
process was for late expedites and if she minded sharing.
JR said she felt HSD was doing the recipients wrong by adding assets to late
expedite. JR said she has been directed by management that F AAs need to do certain
things because it's part of their job.
JR said management would say if they didn't do what they were told it was
insubordination and they could be written up. JR was asked who had threatened her
with insubordination and she said Manager
.
RS
JR stated she was
threatened personally by RS and it was not addressed in a meeting.
manager told her
JR asked her manager, why quantity over quality, JR
quantity was more important. JR was asked what the directive is for late expedites.
JR said if a FAAs a late expedite, to put in assets to offset the late expedite or FAAs
are directed to take a snap shot of the ASPEN screen and send it to a manager to fix.
TITLE:

JR

NAME: SA Sarina Lopez

Interview

ACTIVITY DATE: May 13, 2016

CASE NUMBER:

16-PSl-27396

This document contains neither recommendations or conclusions of HSD/OIG . It is the property of HSD and neither
the document or its contents should be disseminated without prior OIG authorization.
Rev 9.24.15

MEMORANDUM OF INVESTIGATIVE ACTIVITY

Date: (May 13, 2016)
Case Number: (16-PSI-27396)
After the manager "fixes" the late expedite they send it back to the FAA to certify the
case so it looks like the worker made the changes.

JR said they would get emails from

County Director telling
OM
the FAAs to take screen shots of the late expedite screen's and send to their manager to
fix. Montoya said the directive came from
and the date of the
CM
email was April 15, 2015. JR believes the email was titled "Late Expedite." JR
said
has a copy of the email.
FG
JR said in a meeting the staff was directed to take screen shots of the late expedite
screen's, and send to their manager, to fix. JR said some managers will call the FAA
and tell them to add the assets. In January, JR
stated she got a call from RS after
a late expedite email. JR stated RS told her to add assets to the case. JR
said she did what RS told her and did not make a copy of that case.
JR said she looked for the email to RS but the email is missing along with other
emails. JR
said on the share drive they had a late expedite list and 30 day timeliness
list. JR recently looked for both lists on the share drive and only the 30 day
timeliness list was there and that the late expedite list was gone.
JR said she could only remember one case in which she entered assets. JR said
or RS
the rest of the late expedites were sent to her manager
FH
. JR said she overheard a conversation between Manager
and
FH
FAA.
had
a
late
expedite,
and
told
.
told
FH
CG
FH
CG
stated
has since
CG to add assets to the case, CG said ok. JR
CG
been promoted to a manager at the Anthony ISD office.
SSA Lopez asked JR what a late expedite would do to ISD. JR
said a late
expedite would make the error rate go up and possibly HSD would get a sanction, if error
rate was not in good standing with the federal government. JR said HSD could lose
federal dollars if sanctioned. JR said she believes the currently expedite rated in her
office is 99 .2%.
SSA Lopez showed JR
eight examples of ASPEN screens and asked her which
screens would be used to reflect a changed late expedite case.
JR identified the
screens on ASPEN were Example 8 "SNAP-EDG Summary" (yes to no), Example 1
"Register Program-Expedited Screening SNAP" (add the assists in resources), and
Example 4 "Liquid Asset-Summary" (add cash on hand). She stated a case can be
changed before it is certified. She stated after a case is certified, changes cannot be made
except by management the same day.

JR was asked how changing an expedite application to a non-expedited would reflect

on the recipient. JR stated the recipient would receive the benefit later than the seven

MEMORANDUM OF INVESTIGATIVE ACTIVITY

Date: (May 13, 2016)
Case Number: (16-PS/-27396)
days. JR said the benefit amount would not change. JR said F AAs or
management would not change income, or shelter costs because that would affect the
dollar amount of SNAP the recipient would receive. JR said she has never come
across a case where anything else was changed other than assets to make the case a nonexpedite.

JR said she was told that policy says "if a client over states their income we can flip
the difference into assets". JR says it's very rare for a recipient to over report.
JR said there are many ways a case can be expedited late besides, overload of cases.
An example would be if a recipient reports more income than what is actually on their
check stubs that are provided. JR said if she gets a late expedite, she sends it to a
manager and they will "fix" the late expedite and send it back to the FAA to certify the
case. JR said sometimes the manager will certify the case themselves. JR said if
a FAA documents on a client's ASPEN case comments the case was a late expedite, the
case comments are deleted or altered. JR said only management can delete or alter
case comments.
JR believes by changing late expedites to non-expedites the office benefits by have a
more timeliness expedite rate. JR said if they have too many late expedites, their
office can get federal sanctions. JR said if a FAA gets a one late expedite, the FAA
has a meeting with the director and to the regional office manager. JR said she
knows there are F AAs in the office that would like to talk to OIG but she didn't feel
comfortable giving their names during our meeting.