State Auditor Mike Harmon gave an update at the Princeton Rotary Club’s meeting last week about the fraudulent claims his office has found in the Office of Unemployment Insurance and what his office is doing to protect taxpayers’ money in the commonwealth.
Harmon said every year his office conducts the Statewide Single Audit of Kentucky and looks at the state’s financial statement. He noted that in Volume 1 they look specifically at the financial statement and controls, and in Volume 2 they look at federal compliance.
He said in 2021 his office released Volume 1 that found thousands and thousands of unanswered emails sent to the unemployment helpline, along with fraudulent claims from employees working in the unemployment office.
click to download audioAnother thing auditors found was the Office of Unemployment Insurance paid out millions of dollars in a fraudulent manner.
click to download audioThis year, Harmon added, they tried diligently to improve and the state auditor’s office did see some improvements, but he pointed out they still found quite a bid of fraud that was identified within the Office of Unemployment Insurance.
click to download audioIn addition to that, he said in the 3rd quarter of the 2021 fiscal year from January 1st to March 31st, they found more fraudulent UI claims.
click to download audioOn top of that, he noted they also found some fraudulent out-of-state unemployment claims.
click to download audioHarmon added even though the Office of Unemployment Insurance took action to stop payments that were fraudulent they had already received two weeks of compensation before they were able to stop the payments. He noted there were well over $118,000 in fraudulent claims in just the small sample they looked at and they are fairly certain there would have been more.
According to Harmon, Volume 2 which deals with the federal compliance audit of the Office of Unemployment Insurance should be coming out within the next two months.
