Tuesday, June 22, 2021

State Auditor: Over $100 Million in Improper Unemployment Payments

 DHS ignored fraud tips in New scandal. 


State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement 

Over $117 million in improper unemployment payments were made by Mississippi’s Department of Employment Security (MDES) last year and during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This finding and several others – including new fraud-related findings at the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) when it was under previous leadership – were released today in the latest annual audit issued by State Auditor Shad White’s office.

 “I want to thank the auditors for their diligent work on this important report,” said Auditor White. “They overcame many logistical hurdles this past year. This excellent report shows it’s more important than ever to understand the mistakes that were made when money was flowing so freely during COVID.”

 At MDES, auditors found several internal controls suspended or bypassed as the agency responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployment payments were then made to people who never actually lost a job, were already in jail, and others who were ineligible to receive unemployment benefits.

 This finding matches those at other employment agencies in several other states like California, where $11 billion in unemployment overpayments have been identified. The Seattle Times called the state of Washington’s unemployment fraud the largest known theft of public money in that state’s history.

 “Nearly every state I’ve talked to around the country lost millions of dollars to fraud out of their unemployment funds. Mississippi was no exception,” White said. “The federal government and state governments around the country do not need to repeat those mistakes the next time we have a recession. I hope this audit and those like it in other states are used to fix anti-fraud controls and prevent this kind of massive loss from happening in the future.”

 All unemployment overpayments made by MDES after June 30, 2020, will appear in next year’s audit report.

 Separately, in a May 2020 audit report, auditors noted a widespread lack of internal controls at the Department of Human Services. This year’s report shows executive staff at MDHS under previous leadership, when asked, failed to alert auditors of credible allegations of fraud involving grants awarded by the agency. Additionally, the audit shows MDHS continued to fund both the Mississippi Community Education Center and Family Resource Center in FY 2020 even after the two organizations were connected to what became over $90 million in potential misspending of public money.

 For details on the findings at MDES and MDHS – along with other, routine findings at other state agencies – read the full “Yellow Book” audit report by visiting the Auditor’s website and clicking the “Reports” tab near the top of the webpage.

 

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job Shad and staff.....but Scooby Doo could have done that audit. Honestly, this is 100% on the federal government for throwing this much money into state unemployment offices and telling them to hurry up and distribute it.

Anonymous said...

More money was squandered by our elected officials in Washington on this one event than all of the money lost in WorldCom...but Bernie had to spend the rest of his life in prison despite not knowing how to operate a computer. Meanwhile, elected officials just keep getting re-elected.

Unknown said...

Anyone surprised?

Anonymous said...

I want this money recovered! Technically this was my money and every other taxpayer’s. If I stole money from my employer, I would be fired. While you are at it, take away their right to vote, at least until the individuals make full restitution.
I am sick of this s**t. While they are at it, why not tack on a little penalty and time in jail for those considered career criminals.

Anonymous said...

What till you get the Stats on all the PPP loan Fraud...

Anonymous said...

@2:46p- It's disgusting, isn't it?

And the sheeple will argue "they deserved the money" all while ignoring the fraud of politicians. This is exactly why America is suffering.

Anonymous said...

I probably should know this, but I don't: So do the over payments have to be repaid by the recipients? I'm confident they do if fraud was involved, but if it's an error on the part of the government, will (can) they seek to recover the money?

Anonymous said...

It NEVER stops.

Anonymous said...

5.5% fraud isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things considering the economic collapse and impending panic that would have happened had no actions been taken. I’m not surprised the department was ill equipped to handle a catastrophe, few are.

Anonymous said...

Shadrack refers to 'logistical hurdles'? What were they? Why allude to them? Were there hurdles presented (thrown up) by out State Department of Employment Security? Define them. Spotlight them. Shit or get off the pot, Shadrack.

The feds are 100% responsible for dumping all this money into state trust funds all over the nation and expecting their distribution in short and quick order.

There were no federal controls established, there was no system established to coordinate employee refusal to return to work with the UI system, there was no way for thousands of employers to advise the DES of refusals or the inability to call people back to work. There was no system established to man telephones, much less in-person requests, reports or a reliable claims process. All of those shortcomings (failures) fall at the feet of the feds at the current and prior administration.

Package all those failures with cyber-criminals and you have a recipe for certain disaster. Who the hell can be surprised?

You bleacher-dwellers who intend to sit back and blame all this crap on fifty state DES departments have the WRONG targets in your cross-hairs.

There was no Game Plan and I'm not sure there could have been one. Those who abuse cyber systems know more about those systems than their operators do. And, no, I don't work there.

Anonymous said...

Well-reasoned input, 2:48. Almost as valuable as the 'why live here' postulates.

Anonymous said...

No one is surprised 2:48.

The MDES did the same thing immediately after Hurricane Katrina.

King Barbour instructed us to suspend basic rules (and pay every one) "no questions asked".

And yep ... millions of fraudulent dollars went to people that didn't even experience a rain shower up I-55 in Batesville.

Anonymous said...

What about all the local private schools that got covid money? They never lost revenue as tuition was still collected on time. If all the students left or couldn’t pay at the same time, then that’s one thing but that didn’t happen. Seems to a lot of the tuition paying families, those schools are in the same category as these false unemployment claims as their tuition was never lowered after the covid money was collected. So where did that money go?

Krusatyr said...

Do sloppy bureaucrats intend to advance socialist dependency by overpaying benefits? There aren't enough signatures authorizing payment of those checks.

Governor needs to shame and fire responsible upper level department staff and heads.

Anonymous said...

90 mm was to Phil’s friends

Krusatyr said...

Eliminate the minimum wage and deport the illegals so teens can work to save money. Encourage/warn all citizens to maintain savings to weather an economic storm.

Get government out of our lives, they only want to manipulate and own you and your children.

Virtually all fed agencies have guns and ammo but don't want you to have the same.

Anonymous said...

All of them combined got almost as much as Nancy New and Brett Favre.

Anonymous said...

Wait……here’s my shocked face……

Anonymous said...

@5:12 - you thing teens want to work in the chicken farms for $3 an hour? Good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

Not surprised at the findings. Trying to get the overpayments back will be challenging. Shad may have to negotiate reimbursement terms in alternate forms of payment as those funds have likely already been used on new cell phones and other nonessential items.

Anonymous said...

relax fellas, dont sweat all that stolen taxpayer money. the boys in washington will print more.
its just like the old doritos commercial............''crunch all you want,,,,we will make more''

Anonymous said...

Ima stop by later this morning to see if Krusatyr has more to say. Is she Pitt Panther in disguise?

The Federal Teat Groweth said...

'Trying to get the overpayments back' is the least of the approaching blowback. Just wait til these same social security numbers pop back up on future claims (and the likelihood is 100%) and the claims are auto-denied for back-money owed. If the agency follows its own rules, a claim is not paid if the claimant owes, but has not repaid, prior demands for repayment. That'll piss in the whiskey of both Dem majorities.

And if you think Biden/Obama's plans to federalize elections is preposterous, just wait til the regime announces plans to federalize the UI systems of 50 states (or 52 by then).

Anonymous said...

Here is one hurdle. With the bloated incompetence of our government it would cost 3 times as much to recover the money.
Here is an easier, less expensive, common sense way: Note who got too much through fraud and have them receive nothing going forward from the government. but can't do that because that would disenfranchise them or some other buzz word them.

Anonymous said...

@512 No I don't “thing” teens want to work on a chicken farm for $3 an hour.The last three restaurants I went had help wanted signs and they were obviously understaffed . One yesterday had the manager making sandwiches and almost no tables being cleaned.Waffle House even had the hourly wages posted and they were double minimum wage.The free federal money to do nothing has killed our work ethic. And by the way I worked on a chicken farm in college because it was the only job I could get and I wanted a college education,a good job later,a successful life,and I got it by having a strong work ethic.

Anonymous said...

This represents $33.33 for every man woman and child in Mississippi. Make no doubt this was stolen and the great state of Mississippi knows who stole it. Just recover and mail me my $33.33. If not, please give a reasonable explanation of why not. Just to be a little more reasonable, just send me $33.00, I will cover the stamp.

Anonymous said...

Now find that money and give it back to us taxpayers !! Lol, imagine for a second someone who cleans houses on the side for cash or braids hair for cash getting 6000 THOUSAND dollars meant for the legit BBQ joint !

Anonymous said...

8:51 AM Where are all the kiddies from the gated communities practicing their work ethic with jobs this summer?

Anonymous said...

Overpayments have always been a part of "Unemployment Benefits" within any state.

For almost sixty years ...
the old MESC (Mississippi Employment Security Commission) was one of the best in the nation recovering incorrect payments. And almost everything else relating to Unemployment Benefits.

All of that changed during the early 2000's when Barbour convinced the Legislature to abolish the MESC and recreate the agency as MDES.

The resulting fiascos with MDES continue 21 years later.




Anonymous said...

Who's got two thumbs and isn't surprised by this at all?

This guyyyyy

Anonymous said...

6:15, You assume that people of means don't require their kids to work in the summer, so that they can learn the lessons they need to be successful in life? So thats mean other, less fortunate children should not have to work as well, in the interest of fairness? That's a lot of assumptions, and I think they are wrong.

Anonymous said...

Republican legislature, Republican governor, and at the time a Republican President-of course, there was fraud.

Anonymous said...

@11:53pm "Republicans" in Mississippi are not true conservatives, and are therefore RINOs. They are also idiot hicks and hacks who care not for the people of Mississippi, only what public money they can play with to skim, and then dole out to friends and family.

Nobody knows a thing.....riiiiiiight.

Anonymous said...

@6:15–one of my kiddies is painting a building and the other is a waiter.You must not ever be around successful people who live behind the gates or you would know that most all of us insist that our children learn to be productive citizens and learn life skills.

Anonymous said...

Wonder when someone will audit the Auditor? Might be a case of throwing rocks in glass houses.

Anonymous said...

7:22 PM In the old days many wealthy people used to teach some degree of responsibility and values to their children. That is no longer the case in most families. I live in a wealthy neighborhood where kids party full time year round and are growing up to have the same "values" as their parents and Trump.

Anonymous said...

So 5:59pm, since you make massive anecdotal assumptions about certain people, can I? You have no clue. I came from a successful family and I worked my ass of every summer, did school and athletics and was worked by my dad around the house and neighborhood (made me pick up neighborhood trash) every weekend. My children were raised the same.

So typical of a liberal….can’t see the hypocrisy in their “beliefs.” I guess when everything you believe is proven to be false by reality, hypocrisy becomes your game. I’ll keep on judging people by their own individual actions though, instead of classifying and assuming based on race and economic status.


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