State Rep. Donni Steele is demanding accountability following the release of a troubling Michigan Office of the Auditor General performance audit that identified significant failures in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars in agreements with the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI).

MPHI is a nonprofit organization that conducts public health research and carries out functions that fall within the responsibilities of MDHHS.

“Since taking office four years ago to represent the 54th District, I have worked hard to fetter out this type of wasteful spending. This audit should alarm every taxpayer in Michigan,” said Steele, who is a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Health (a portion of the MDHHS budget). “We are talking about hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, and the Auditor General found that MDHHS could not consistently demonstrate that it knew what it was paying for.”

Between October 2023 and September 2025, MDHHS established nine high-level agreements and 857 project-level agreements with MPHI totaling approximately $435 million. The audit found that MDHHS’s efforts to monitor those agreements were “not sufficient. This is a bipartization issue that cannot be swept under the rug.”

“This is not simply a paperwork problem, this is a leadership issue,” Steele said. “When government approves payments without adequate supporting documentation, pays before verifying that required work plans have been reviewed, and allows individuals with ties to the contractor to participate in approving payments, taxpayers have every right to demand answers. I am calling on the Governor to take control of her department and end this egregious lack of oversight.”

Steele said the audit should serve as a wake-up call for the department and the Legislature.

“We cannot continue to operate government on an honor system,” Steele said. “Taxpayers expect documentation. They expect accountability. They expect proper separation of responsibilities. And they expect the Legislature to have accurate information about how their money is being spent.”

Steele is calling for MDHHS to strengthen independent review of MPHI payments, eliminate potential conflicts in the approval process, ensure required documentation is obtained before taxpayer dollars are approved for reimbursement, and provide the Legislature with complete and accurate reporting.

“The Auditor General has done its job by identifying these failures,” Steele said. “Now MDHHS needs to do its job by fixing them. If this is not accomplished, then we simply cannot fund MPHI.  It is the Legislature’s job to be responsible of tax dollars so that we can direct public funds to services people actually need. There should be no excuses.”