SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — State leaders have frequently described unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “perfect storm” due to the massive number of people filing for benefits and the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s outdated equipment.

An audit released Thursday stated that IDES failed to maintain accurate and complete data of claimants in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance system.

The Auditor General’s office found IDES didn’t create an audit trail to properly document claims according to federal standards. Auditor General Frank Mautino told WAND News that his team requested this data to determine if claimants were eligible for benefits or acting fraudulently.

IDES officials claimed the federal PUA system limitations and data errors were the top reasons for the issue. Although, Mautino explained this problem may have been much smaller if the department implemented the unemployment insurance standards the state had used for years.

“The federal rules allowed you to self-certify,” Mautino said Wednesday. “So, you just had to say that I’m unemployed and I qualify for this without providing any information. And therein lies the problem.”

Mautino said the department also failed to implement general information technology controls over the pandemic unemployment system. He stressed that $3 billion of unemployment payments went out to 11,213 people from July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022. Although, there is no proof that the right people received that money.

“In our normal state unemployment system, if you had 15 applications from one house, our computers would have said no there’s something wrong. Flag this,” Mautino said. “If you’re self-certifying, that didn’t happen.” 

The Auditor General’s office also found that IDES lacked internal controls over financial accounting and reporting. IDES management indicated that those weaknesses were caused by staff shortages and the volume of work the agency faced from increased unemployment transactions. 

Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday that he has read the audit and noted that many of the technology issues date back to the Rauner administration.

“We’re addressing them as fast as we can and I pay attention to that,” Pritzker said during an unrelated press conference in Springfield. “Our staff in the governor’s office works with our agencies to make sure that we’re addressing each one of those things.”

However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are interested to see the results of an IDES performance audit expected to be released next month. Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) sponsored the resolution calling for the audit analyzing the types of fraud schemes IDES experienced and procedures the agency took to respond to those claims.

The performance audit should also include a summary of the average time IDES took to process claims, the timeliness of benefit payments, and the accuracy of those payments.

“The choosing of the contracts, how that was done,” Mautino noted. “What happened with the computer systems where the delays were created? So, we’ll be seeing that pretty soon.”

The Illinois Department of Employment Security did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the July 6 audit. 

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