A Republican lawmaker from Southwest Washington is ratcheting up accusations of negligence at the state Employment Security Department for its handling of unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, claims department leaders deactivated internal safeguards against fraud in order to expedite claims, but unwittingly opened the doors to fraudsters. Department officials have said Rivers’ claims are “tough to answer.”
Her claims appeared in a Monday report by The Seattle Times that examined steps the department took to stem a torrent of fraudulent claims. Officials say $576 million was lost initially, though millions have since been recovered.
Rivers specifically claims agency leaders deactivated software that help detect fraud to be reviewed by staff later. She cites workers with knowledge of the decision and told OPB she has encouraged those workers to file whistleblower complaints.
“The price is high for them to speak out and I don’t blame them” for not coming forward, Rivers said. “The fact of the matter is, they’re in tough spot. These people will lose their jobs. Even if they file for whistleblower protection.”
Rivers declined to put said staffers in contact with OPB.
Officials with the state Auditor’s Office, which is expected to release a report on the wave of fraudulent claims and the agency’s response, declined to confirm if any whistleblowers have filed complaints, citing state confidentiality laws. That report isn’t expected until April 2021.
Monday evening, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported it had obtained a whistleblower complaint alleging a senior department official “made changes to computer systems that not only allowed for massive fraud but also locked out people from accounts needed to file jobless benefits.”
The senator’s claims came a week after Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine held a press conference about the state of the unemployment benefits system and the response to fraudulent claims.
According to the Aug. 3 press conference, the department received about 86,000 fraudulent claims, scattered among about 1.3 million total claims since the start of the pandemic. The vast majority of fraudulent claims arrived in mid-May.
Following the spike, the department halted payments May 13. Then, the department instituted new anti-fraud protocols that LeVine said thwarted further fraudulent losses. In the press conference, she estimated at least $200 million was saved.
LeVine also noted in the press conference that $340 million of the $576 million had been recovered.
Rivers said she took issue that no policy shortfalls have been ascribed to the fraudulent claims. She said she has raised the issue personally with LeVine during a conference call with the department and Republican senators.
“I’m given to understand by people in your agency that an intentional decision was made to turn off the internal fraud detection controls,‘” Rivers said she told LeVine during a conference call with Republican senators.
According to Rivers, LeVine didn’t deny the assertion, instead replying the department was acting out of compassion to deliver benefits more rapidly. When asked about Rivers’ claims, a department spokesman said it wasn’t straightforward.
“So many features or parts of the software could be described (as internal fraud detection) it is tough to answer at this point,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson also could not corroborate Rivers’ recounting of the interaction.
“The commissioner is not available for an interview on this topic so we cannot speak to what she meant when answering the senator,” the department spokesperson said. “We can say – all of these topics will likely be covered in the announced audits to be conducted by the Washington State Auditor’s Office.”
