State Senator Chapin Rose continues to look into what went wrong with the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.  Senator Rose is a member of the Legislative Audit Commission and he passed a resolution directing the Illinois Auditor General to perform a full audit of the program.

Senator Rose says that the limited report covers two months of that 16-month program and that things didn’t go well with it. He continued stressing that the PUA program was an unmitigated disaster that could have been avoidable, but officials failed to get unemployment payments to those who need it. He also stressed that there were no safeguards in the program to prevent fraud. 

A report that was released by the Illinois Auditor General showed that the Illinois Department of Employment Security, which oversees the unemployment program, showed a payment of unemployment benefits to deceased individuals, did not have any antifraud catches and had huge waiting lists with long phone calls that got nowhere. The audit found that nearly $155 million was awarded to ineligible claims during a period of less than two months. Outside experts estimate the loss to fraud was much higher. 

State Senator Rose also voted in support to audit the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program.  The BIG program had concerns as well including grants going to businesses that had already shut down and did not give enough money to downstate businesses.