From the office of Senator Aric Putnam
SAINT PAUL, MN — Senator Aric Putnam (DFL–St. Cloud), a co-author of the bipartisan legislation that created Minnesota’s Independent Office of Inspector General, has been appointed to the Legislative Inspector General Advisory Commission.
The eight-member commission, split evenly between the four legislative caucuses, is charged with recruiting and recommending candidates for Minnesota’s first Inspector General, who will lead the state’s new independent watchdog agency tasked with rooting out fraud within and against state programs.
“Getting this office up and running the right way matters just as much as getting it passed,” said Senator Putnam. “We built the Office of Inspector General to have real teeth: subpoena power, the authority to freeze funds, and independence from political pressure. Now our job is to find a leader with the experience and integrity to use those tools well. I’m glad to help carry that work forward.”
Senator Putnam was a co-author of SF 856, which first passed the Senate 60-7 in May 2025 and cleared the House on a 127-5 vote in May 2026 before being signed into law by the Governor. The new office consolidates state fraud-oversight functions into a single independent agency with its own investigative authority, a first for Minnesota, which joins more than a dozen other states with a statewide Inspector General.
The commission has until January 1, 2027, to advance a list of candidates to the Governor, who must appoint Minnesota’s first Inspector General by February 1, 2027, subject to confirmation by three-fifths of the Senate.