Shows over $5 billion in unemployment overpayments
State Senator Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) released the following statement regarding the recently released performance audit of IDES during the pandemic:
“The details contained in this IDES audit are without a question sickening. In an effort to fast-track claims, Illinois awarded millions of dollars to a company in a no-bid contract just for IDES to disable routine identity cross-matches meant to prevent fraud within the system we paid for.
“This ill-conceived decision helped fraudsters to steal billions of dollars of unemployed benefits while hardworking Illinoisians facing economic uncertainty created by the Pritzker Administration’s lockdown were forced to spend countless hours trying to access the benefits they rightfully deserved.
“The mismanagement and poor decisions made by IDES is disgraceful to say the very least. The people of our state deserve accountability. Unfortunately, I do not have confidence we will see any accountability from this Administration.”