Comptroller’s Office Launches Audit Of NY’s Unemployment System

ALBANY – The New York State Comptroller’s Office has launched an audit into the state unemployment system.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office says the audit began based on their assessment of “risk which includes complaints, large increases in payments, new programs and criteria, and changes to the IT.”

Senator George Borrello is applauding the decision to audit what he has calls a “broken” system.

“As my colleagues and I emphasized at a press conference earlier this week, every aspect of this system is failing,” said Borrello in a statement. “It is failing claimants in need with frustrating and unending delays. It is failing small businesses who are being unfairly asked to cover the massive deficit created by lax eligibility and rampant fraud. And it is failing New Yorkers, who are forced to pay among the nation’s highest taxes to support a costly government bureaucracy that is too often dysfunctional and unaccountable.”

Under the leadership of the Comptroller, Borrello says he looks forward to an independent and thorough examination of the system.

“However, this audit does not give the Department of Labor a license to continue to ignore my requests and those of several media outlets for critically important fraud data,” said Borrello. “Employers who are being hit with 200 percent increases in their UI rates deserve a full accounting of the losses they alone are being forced to cover and New Yorkers deserve transparency from the state government their tax dollars support.”