BCI investigating Mahoning County Job & Family Services complaint

YOUNGSTOWN — State investigators are looking in to possible criminal activity by two Mahoning County Department of Job & Family Services employees, department director Robert Bush, Jr. confirmed today.

Bush said the agency received a citizen complaint at the end of September regarding possible irregularities in the handling of Medicaid and food-assistance cases. The complaint prompted him to seek the advice of the county prosecutor’s office, then the sheriff’s office, he said.

The sheriff’s office forwarded the case to the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which reportedly came to the Oak Hill Avenue agency earlier this week. Bush said that, to his knowledge, BCI did not remove any evidence from the premises.

Two employees are on administrative leave pending a pre-disciplinary hearing the agency will conduct. The BCI investigation is ongoing, with no timeline as to when it will wrap up, Bush said.

The two employees in question are case managers, Bush said. Specifically, the complaint was in regard to “possible inappropriate determining of eligibility to receive benefits,” he said.

“We’ve taken some actions and put some administrative [procedures] in place, and some additional guidelines in place, to hopefully prevent this in the future,” Bush added.