Auditor General’s Reports Confirms Whitmer’s Unemployment Insurance Agency Failed Michigan Residents

November 18, 2021

Lansing, Mich., November 18, 2021 – Moments ago, the Office of the Auditor General released its report detailing the failures of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. This report comes only weeks after the Auditor General’s recent report revealing that the state was grossly behind on inspecting elevators and boilers in state facilities, creating a potential safety hazard for state employees and Michigan residents visiting state facilities. The report found two material findings:

• “A variety of actions and inaction by UIA’s senior leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a poor control environment (tone at the top). Those actions directly contributed to the creation of invalid PUA application and certification processes and UIA’s failure to timely or appropriately address issues pointed out by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and UIA staff.”​
• “UIA included 4 eligibility criteria on PUA claim applications and weekly benefit certifications not authorized in the CARES Act or the other USDOL guidance. Also, it continued to make improper eligibility determinations and related overpayments 9 months after the USDOL first notified Michigan of the deficiencies.”

Details released by the Auditor General today further underscore Whitmer’s inability to govern effectively. Since the onset of COVID-19, Whitmer has had countless operational breakdowns, several failed directors, and even used taxpayer dollars as hush money to silence one ex-director and staff. 

“Today’s report confirms what hundreds of thousands of Michiganders already knew: Gretchen Whitmer’s UIA has unequivocally failed our state,” said Eric Ventimiglia, Executive Director for Michigan Rising Action. Ventimiglia continued, “As Whitmer was busy trying to build a national profile and ingratiating herself among the liberal elite in Washington, our unemployment system was imploding. It’s past time for Governor Whitmer to be held accountable for the many failures and scandals she oversaw at the UIA over the past two years.”

To view the entire report, click here.