(Photo: WJRT)
The state Unemployment Insurance Agency was so desperate for employees when an avalanche of Covid-layoff claims hit two years ago that it hired 5,508 newcomers without background checks.
A report now reveals that 169 new workers had been convicted of identity theft, armed robbery, embezzlement and other crimes, The Detroit News says Friday in a subscribers-only article.
Seventy-one of those 169 were still employed at the time of the review.
... "Even after UIA learned of this oversight in mid-2020, it did not take timely or appropriate measures to correct it," according to the audit.
That's among dramatic disclosures in a 44-page study of the government agency's personnel practices, issued Friday by Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler, appointed in 2014 by the legislature. His scrutiny spans over a year from October 2019 to late 2020, a hectic time when the workforce handling jobless benefits surged five-fold.
Ringler rated the agency's overall handling of new and departing employees as "not sufficient." ...
Ringler's report comes a few weeks after the unemployment agency disclosed that it had suspended or fired 18 employees during the pandemic because of pending criminal investigations.
The paper quotes agency Director Julia Dale:
"The lessons learned and opportunities articulated by the audit serve as the platform to launch an improved Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency."
Doug Ringler, auditor general (Photo: State of Michigan)
The auditor general, a certified public accountant who was chief audit executive for then-Gov. Rick Snyder from 2008-14, also found that Brian Carpenter – former chief operating officer at the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity – made a job-seeking overture at a staffing company less than two weeks after arranging a state contract with that placement firm.
[He] was hired by the agency about eight months later.
Carpenter did not tell the LEO director he was pursuing a job with the staffing company until he announced his departure, according to the audit. His LinkedIn page indicates he's now vice president at Robert Half Government, one of the main staffing company's contracted by the state for help at the unemployment agency.
He's now a vice president there, according to Lansing reporter Beth LeBlanc of The News.
