Group of Georgia lawmakers want criminal probe into unremitted funds | Georgia

(The Center Square) — A bunch of Democratic Georgia lawmakers is asking for a criminal probe after the Georgia Department of Labor found out greater than $105.1 million in unremitted funds.

Last week, following an interior audit, the hard work division mentioned it returned the funds to the state treasury. Officials mentioned the funds started gathering in fiscal 2014 beneath the former hard work commissioner and had been found out as phase of an investigation into “fraud and unemployment insurance system vulnerabilities.”

Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson licensed the switch of the funds to the Georgia Department of Treasury on Aug. 3.

“The attorney general of Georgia must open an investigation into how the former commissioner was able to accumulate more than $105 million in unremitted funds,” state Rep. Rhonda Burnough, D-Riverdale, mentioned in a statement. “This internal audit proves that the former Georgia labor commissioner was mismanaging the department, and it would not surprise me if he deliberately withheld unemployment payments from Georgians in their time of need. He also failed to update technology and install a communications system to address the backlog of unemployment claims.”

State Reps. Viola Davis, D-Stone Mountain; Kim Schofield, D-Atlanta; and Sandra Scott, D-Rex, joined Burnough in calling for a criminal investigation. The lawmakers despatched letters to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr inquiring for the probe.

The disclosure adopted a sequence of state and federal fraud indictments.

Earlier this month, officers introduced {that a} Fulton County grand jury indicted 8 former state staff on unemployment insurance coverage fraud fees. In November, the feds introduced fees towards 8 other people for conspiring to defraud the Georgia DOL out of tens of hundreds of thousands of greenbacks in federal funds for unemployment advantages.

Representatives for a number of Georgia officers — Gov. Brian Kemp and Carr  — didn’t reply to a request for remark.

“The Georgia Department of Labor will be fully cooperative and work in concert with the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, the Georgia Office of the Inspector General, the Georgia General Assembly, and other authorities to restore the public’s trust and bring to light any concerns that exist within the agency,” mentioned Commissioner Bruce Thompson in a observation to The Center Square.