AUGUSTA, Maine— State Rep. Deqa Dhalac’s time in Augusta politics is effectively winding down, but the questions surrounding her past ties to Gateway Community Services are not going away.
Wednesday marked the final day of regular State House business for the South Portland Democrat, who announced earlier this year that she would not seek reelection. Dhalac, a former South Portland mayor and two-term member of the Maine House, still technically remains in office until the end of her term, but her days as an active lawmaker in Augusta are nearing their end as the legislative process is over for the year in Augusta.
Her exit comes as Gateway Community Services, a Portland-area organization tied to MaineCare billing and immigrant services, remains under state and federal scrutiny following allegations of fraud and improper billing. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services halted MaineCare payments to Gateway in December while investigating what the state described as credible allegations of fraud.
The Gateway matter has also drawn attention from Washington. U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, named Gateway Community Services and Dhalac as organizations or persons of interest in a letter seeking suspicious activity reports from the U.S. Treasury as part of a broader investigation into social services fraud.
Dhalac has denied wrongdoing and has said she was not involved in Gateway’s billing practices. Public reporting has identified her as a former assistant executive director of Gateway Community Services, though Dhalac has maintained that any suggestion she participated in illegal activity is false.
Gateway’s problems began drawing wider public attention after state audits and investigations raised questions about its MaineCare reimbursements. The Maine Wire has reported that Maine DHHS previously found Gateway was overpaid more than $662,000 between 2015 and 2018. The Maine Monitor later reported that state officials reviewed roughly 15,000 claims from March 2021 through December 2022 and were seeking to recover nearly $1.1 million.
The controversy has made Dhalac’s seat on the powerful Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee a political flashpoint. Dhalac served on the budget-writing committee while questions mounted about a taxpayer-funded provider with which she had past ties. Her official legislative profile lists her as the representative for House District 120, covering part of South Portland, and confirms her service on Appropriations.
Dhalac announced in January that she would not seek another term, citing racism, harassment, and threats directed at Black and brown elected officials. Her critics, however, have argued that the timing of her departure cannot be separated from the expanding Gateway scandal and the federal interest now surrounding the organization.
Gateway’s founder and CEO, Abdullahi Ali, has also drawn scrutiny because of his political activity overseas. Public reporting has identified Ali as a Somali-born Mainer who ran for president of Jubaland, a federal member state in Somalia, in 2024. That campaign has fueled further questions about Gateway’s finances, political networks, and the flow of taxpayer money through Maine’s nonprofit and social services system.
For Republicans and fraud watchdogs, the Gateway case has become another example of what they describe as a larger failure of oversight in Maine’s taxpayer-funded welfare and health care programs. For Dhalac, it is an unresolved cloud following her out of the State House.
The former South Portland mayor came to Augusta as a celebrated figure in Democratic politics. She leaves with her legislative career ending and her name now tied to one of the most politically explosive MaineCare fraud controversies in the state.
