State Department of Corrections
Paid $1.3 Million to Fired Employees. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spent nearly
$1.3 million in just two fiscal years to pay unemployment benefits to workers
who had been fired, according to a report released
March 30 by the California Office of the Inspector General. The sum represented
nearly 25 percent of the department's spending on unemployment benefits in
2006-07 and 2007-08, the inspector general said.
The report, which
refers to fired workers as "adversely separated employees," stated:
"The CDCR's lack of internal procedures to
effectively process UI claims and poor communication between the CDCR and the
Employment Development Department (EDD) contributed significantly to adversely
separated employees receiving UI benefits. Of the 1,045 employees adversely
separated during fiscal years 2006-07 and 2007-08, 186 employees received UI
benefits."
Additionally, the
report notes that unemployment benefits "should be available for employees
who have lost their jobs due to no fault of their own, not for employees the
CDCR separated for misconduct."
According to the
report, the EDD did not do a good job of gathering information about people
submitting claims for unemployment benefits, and the Department of Corrections
did not do a good job of responding to the EDD requests that were made.
"Of the 25 cases investigated, the CDCR responded in writing to the EDD
only ten times and only five of the responses were timely," the report
said. "Furthermore, the CDCR had the opportunity to appeal the EDD
decisions to grant UI benefits; however, it did so in only one case."
Three case studies
included in the report reveal that unemployment benefits were given to: a peace
officer who was fired after she committed a hit-and-run accident while driving
under the influence and then refused to cooperate with the California Highway
Patrol; an officer who was fired because he was affiliated with a prison gang
and possessed an illegal assault weapon; and an employee who was let go because
she failed to report for work 132 days (the equivalent of six months of work)
during her 15-month probationary period.
Mary Fernandez,
undersecretary of the department, said the department agrees with the report's
conclusions and is working with the EDD to fix the problems identified by the
inspector general. (Source: California Office of the Inspector General Special
Report, March 30.)
Cal-Taxletter, April 3, 2009
© 2009 California Taxpayers'
Association.
All Rights Reserved.