| Detroit Free Press
Senior leaders at the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency disagreed with fraud prevention as well as quickly distributing benefits to millions of Michigan residents during the COVID-19 epidemic, resulting in “hundreds of millions” being distributed to offenders, the agency said in a report released Wednesday.
“It is clear that there was a lack of consensus among UIA administrators on the changes,” said a report prepared by Deloitte and Touch LLP for UIA.
It cited an email sent by Teresa Burns, director of internal control at UIA, in which Burns said the agency was pushing and relaxing many needs in an effort to “pay as much as possible and do so quickly.” “”
The report notes that Burns said Steve Gray, the then UIA director who resigned earlier this month, said in a call with UIA leaders that fraud prevention was not a high priority. Burns found that the “relevant” report stated.
The email has not been independently verified by Detroit Free Press.
The report also notes that when several UIA officials called Gray back after hearing the hearing, Gray refused – and did not remember – making them.
Gray did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
More: The director of the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency will resign
More: Whiter called the UIA director’s resignation a “good thing.”
The report, sent to the government’s Gretchen Whitmer’s ToFis on Wednesday, details how the UIA handled a flurry of fraudulent claims this spring, part of an international criminal ring aimed at exploiting state unemployment programs across the country.
A spokesman for Whitmer said the agency agreed with the report’s findings and that corrective action had been taken in many cases to take into account the findings.
Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for Whiter’s Office Fees, said that under the new leadership, UIA will continue to review its operations and procedures to ensure it maintains the right balance between timely payment to hardworking families and protection against fraud.
The Deloitte analysis, confirmed by the UIA’s own partial ditches, found that millions of dollars were likely to have been distributed to criminals. The report notes that most of the money comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARS) Act fund from the federal government, not from the state.
More: The state says 340,000 Michigan unemployment claims, or 20%, are flagged for fraud.
The UIA also rushed to distribute benefits to millions of Michigan residents who shut down businesses across the state under the stay-home order, when it also experienced a flood of fraudulent claims. To benefit filers more quickly, the UIA removed some stop-gates.
“The agency’s previous decisions called for a balance between fraud prevention and timely payments to qualified claimants, while we strongly agree with the report’s findings that policy, technical and organizational changes have increased the agency’s potential exposure to fraud,” Lisa Astland said. I.A. After Gray’s departure, Eastland Olsen played his role.
In early June, the agency investigated 340,000 claims that paid little in advance, or 20% of all claims paid by the state at the time.
This meant that at least some of the money was distributed to criminals at the same time as benefits were kept for real claimants, many of whom were flagged for fraud.
The report also found that in the race to hire more customer service representatives to answer filers’ calls, the agency entered into agreements with three outside vendors, and did not conduct background checks on contractors they hired by the UIA, or under the expectation that outside vendors would do so. .
One of those tenants was Brandy Hawkins, who has since been charged with fraudulently distributing more than million 2 million in unemployment insurance benefits. U.S. Attorney Matthew Snyder searches his home on Hawkins in July by Fischer. More than 200,000 cash was recovered.
The report found that, based on the interview, Hawkins was terminated on June 17, but that termination was not done properly to the appropriate UIA staff, and he maintained access to the system after she was released from there.
State Rip, who chairs the Joint Selection Committee on COVD-19 epidemic. Matt Hall Hall, R-Marshall said in an email statement: “I have been listening to the testimony of agency and former director Granny for the past several months. Asking questions about this. “
He said he asked if changes had been made to the tools to detect fraud, if that change would affect the agency’s effectiveness and what was being done to ensure the unemployment system was safe and efficient.
He said, ‘I have received some answers so far, when we found out that there is a contribution to their work.’
To read the full report, click here.
Contact Adrian Roberts: [email protected].
