State Auditor To Look Into Employment Security Department After Fraud, Delays

Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy announced last week that she would be launching two separate audits into the Employment Security Department (ESD) after considerable delays in benefit payments and hundreds of millions of dollars lost to fraud.

Governor Jay Inslee said the ESD and his office are working diligently to root out the crime while also accelerating a resolution of claims.

"The claims came in ten times higher than this system was designed to accommodate, and at the same time you have this criminal conspiracy trying to steal this money." said Inslee, "So now for the department to try and ferret out legitimate claims from illegitimate claims, by the tens of thousands, it's absolutely infuriating."

McCarthy said the focus of one audit will be into how fraudsters managed to steal between $300 and $600 million in unemployment benefits, while the second audit will investigate issues regarding benefit disbursements.