SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Two South Dakota state lawmakers who sit on their chamber’s government operations and audit committee (GOAC) are sharing their perspectives on what comes next following news that a former Department of Social Services employee stands accused of taking roughly $1.78 million from Child Protection Services.
“Those funds were supposed to go to help children and families,” Rep. Linda Duba of Sioux Falls said. “That’s what it’s for.”
“We have to ask some hard questions to find out where the missteps happened,” Sen. Tim Reed of Brookings said.
68-year-old Lonna Carroll of Iowa allegedly took the money, which included both federal and state dollars.
“I think this falls squarely under GOAC’s responsibility, because we are the ones who work through the audits,” Reed said.
“Being a member of the GOAC committee, we’re certainly going to be asking all the right questions and investigating why the process was the way it was,” Duba said.
Carroll’s alleged crimes spanned more than a decade from 2010 to 2023. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says Carroll had the ability to approve her own financial requests.
“Now is the time to go back and ask some questions about how did happen, why did it go so long, what can we do so it doesn’t happen again in the future,” Reed said.
“I want the citizens of South Dakota to know that the committee, GOAC committee, is concerned about this, we’re going to do a deep dive into it in our meeting, and we’re going to ensure going forward this can’t happen again,” Duba said.
A joint GOAC meeting is scheduled for July 31.
KELOLAND reached out to the Department of Social Services for this report but only received a statement in response. The statement from Secretary Matt Althoff reads as follows:
As the Attorney General stated, employees at the Department of Social Services discovered suspicious financial activity and reported it to the Division of Criminal Investigation. DSS staff cooperated completely with the investigation.
DSS utilizes both internal and external audits, reconciliations, and internal controls to safeguard public funds – additional safeguards have already been implemented, and we continue working to identify further prevention and detection methods.
As this is an ongoing criminal case, DSS cannot comment further.
