March 16, 2022
Senator Koran, Chair, called the Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) meeting to order at 3:15 p.m. The purpose of the meeting was to release the Office of the Legislative Auditor’s (OLA’s) evaluation, Unemployment Insurance Program: Efforts to Prevent and Detect the Use of Stolen Identities.
Judy Randall, Legislative Auditor, explained that the evaluation involved a significant amount of not-public data, which OLA has statutory authority to access. However, OLA is limited in what information it can share in the presentation and the public report. She said that the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) did receive an unredacted version of the report. Ms. Randall introduced Laura Schwartz, Evaluation Manager for OLA’s Program Evaluation Division, to provide a presentation on the report. Ms. Schwartz described the key findings of the evaluation and provided a brief overview of DEED’s unemployment insurance (UI) program and the types of UI fraud that DEED encounters. She added that OLA’s report focused on imposter and hijacker fraud, which increased during the pandemic. In closing, Ms. Schwartz noted several recommendations directed at DEED and one recommendation for the Legislature.
Senator Koran invited Evan Rowe, Deputy Commissioner of Workforce Services and Operations for DEED’s Unemployment Insurance Division, to respond to the evaluation. Mr. Rowe thanked OLA for the report, stating that DEED values every opportunity to improve its processes and service delivery. He also said that he wanted to publicly recognize the UI division’s unprecedented efforts during the pandemic to deliver services to Minnesotans when they needed it the most. Mr. Rowe refuted some portions of OLA’s recommendations, but said that DEED is committed to continuing to deliver high quality services to Minnesotans and ensure a resilient response to UI cyberthreats.
After many comments and questions among members and the deputy commissioner, Senator Koran adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.
Senator Mark W. Koran, Chair
Shelly Gilb, Recording Secretary
