State & Local Reports

Since the surge in pandemic‑related California unemployment claims began in March 2020, individuals, news organizations, and law enforcement officials have reported many cases of potential and actual UI fraud. Not surprisingly, the pandemic conditions increased EDD’s UI workloads and also resulted in changes to federal UI benefit programs, both of which have created a greater risk of fraud

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision makers across the world created policies to curb the spread of the disease. These policies influenced many aspects of society in an effort to reduce COVID-19 caseload and deaths and limit economic impacts. There is now a growing set of data capturing policies, the effects on the policy environment, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic itself on different regions and populations, as measured by these different impacts. Together, these data provide a basis to better understand how and whether policies achieved their intended outcomes and, where possible, to inform future policymaking to best support those continuing to experience the impacts of the pandemic. This report describes the analysis of these impacts across different communities within Washington, D.C., and provides the foundation for further analysis for the relative impact of policies on each of these groups

The economic shutdowns in early 2020 led to historically high numbers of UI claims in a very short time (claim surge), and further shutdowns began in December 2020, raising the potential for additional spikes in unemployment. This audit reviewed EDD’s response to the claim surge, its handling of the resulting backlog of unpaid claims, and the assistance it has provided to individuals through its call center

The State of Delaware is missing out on millions in tax revenue by not taxing and regulating marijuana – money that could be used to plug budget holes in the immediate term and continue to provide revenue in future years. Marijuana legalization saw the light of day in the Legislature over the years, but this year public opinion stands at an all-time high. With nearby states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia on the cusp of legalization and implementation, Delaware should apply the same consideration. Inaction doesn’t reward us withcurbed usage but will prevent us from realizing economic benefits and the $43 million that could be available if Delaware were to devise a responsible regulatory framework. It's time to legalize it.

This letter report provides an update on our assessment of the State’s management of federal funds related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a high risk statewide issue

Why This Release? 29 Del. C. § 5823 tasks the Office of the Auditor of Accounts (AOA) with conducting an annual audit of time records to determine whether dually employed individuals were paid from more than one tax-funded source for working coincident hours of the day.The State has not had procedures to monitor or identify dually employed individuals and has not maintained time records for elected or appointed officials. This renders us unable to identify a complete population of dually employed individuals for testing and unable to test for the proper treatment of dual employment hours. Without the above information, we are unable to determine if the State was in compliance with the Dual Employment law. Despite repeated findings, advice letters from the Office of the Attorney General, and advisory publications by the State Public Integrity Commission, these difficulties still exist.Since the State has not implemented any changes to address our prior findings, we are unable to perform this mandated engagement.

What Was Performed? A financial statement audit of the State of Delaware 403(b) Plan for Calendar year 2019 was performedWhy This Engagement? The 403(b) plan is a voluntary plan that allows education employees to defer a portion of their paycheck to a retirement plan. This benefit is offered to help bridge the retirement income gap and lower participants’ current taxes. The Plan is intended to satisfy the requirement of Section 403(b) of Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as amended.This engagement was performed in accordance with 29 Del. C. §2906 and §6058.What Was Found? This report has a disclaimed opinion. 1Why is the audit opinion disclaimed? The Department of Labor permits the exclusion of investment vendors which were previously approved but discontinued prior to 2009. Since the financial statements permissibly exclude significant dollars for more than one hundred of these discontinued vendors, the auditors cannot opine that the financial statements are complete and accurate in all material respects. Disclaimed audit opinions are standard in these cases.