The new head of the Georgia Department of Labor vowed Wednesday to overhaul an agency deluged with unemployment claims during the pandemic that resulted in a barrage of complaints over processing delays.
Thompson is beginning his new job just two weeks after the Georgia Office of Inspector General reported nearly 300 state employees erroneously received unemployment benefits totaling $6.7 million during the last two pandemic years, averaging $23,700 per worker.
The new commissioner said he has just hired a former prosecutor to get to the bottom of allegations of fraud within the agency as well as a legislative liaison to help Georgia lawmakers handle complaints they have been getting from constituents whose unemployment claims have been delayed.
Thompson pledged to eliminate the department’s backlog of
about 59,000 pending unemployment claims by August.
Thompson said he also has found many of the agency’s career centers across the
state in a state of disrepair, including extensive water damage.
“We’ve seen all kinds of evidence of neglect,” he said. “That stops now.”Thompson also complained of recent reductions that cut the agency’s budget by
about 70%. As a result, five career centers have been closed and six more are
due to be shut down, he said.
One source of funding the labor department has relied upon has gone away,
Thompson said. An administrative fee the agency charges businesses, which
collected $10.6 million during the last fiscal year, was allowed to expire last
year. Thompson said he will ask the General Assembly to reinstate the fee.
Thompson’s reform plans drew bipartisan support from lawmakers who heard his
presentation Wednesday.
“I agree with your sense of urgency … after what we have been through with this
department and what our constituents have been through,” said state Sen. Nan
Orrock, D-Atlanta.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News
Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation. See capitol-beat.org.
