Georgia OIG Publishes Open Letter Regarding Unemployment Insurance Fraud in State Government

The Office of the State Inspector General (OIG) has submitted to the Governor a summary of its recent efforts to combat unemployment insurance (UI) fraud within Georgia’s public workforce. As further detailed in the letter, by combining data obtained from the State Accounting Office (SAO) and the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, OIG tentatively identified over 280 full-time state employees who erroneously received unemployment insurance (UI) payments in 2020 or 2021. These payments averaged $23,700 per employee and totaled over $6.7 million.

To further combat this issue, OIG offers several recommendations:

1. The General Assembly should explore legislation that extends the statute of limitations for prosecuting pandemic-related fraud.
2. The General Assembly must pass legislation that grants OIG administrative subpoena authority.
3. The Georgia Department of Labor and SAO should coordinate quarterly to ensure that state employees have not submitted inaccurate or fraudulent UI applications that omit full or part-time employment with the state.