Federal Agencies' Unemployment Compensation Costs Can Be Reduced Through Improved Management

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the adequacy of four agencies' controls to ensure that only eligible former federal employees receive unemployment payments.

GAO reviewed actions affecting unemployment compensation practices which were taken by the Departments of Labor, Energy, and Commerce and the Office of Personnel Management and learned that these agencies were not following two critical regulatory requirements to prevent former federal employees from improperly receiving unemployment payments. Department of Labor regulations require federal agencies to: (1) provide state unemployment offices with accurate, complete, and timely wage and separation information about former employees so that the state can compensate them properly; and (2) appeal state decisions to pay unemployment benefits to those whom the agency believes are ineligible. GAO noted specifically that nearly half of the four agencies' former employees had been improperly authorized to receive more than $400,000 in District of Columbia unemployment payments. GAO concluded that federal agencies' unemployment costs could be considerably reduced though improved management.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Rosslyn S. Kleeman Team: General Accounting Office: Federal Personnel and Compensation Division Phone: (202) 512-9204