Audit: Ga. labor department 'missed opportunities'

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Labor Department failed to have adequate systems in place to detect and recover millions of dollars in unemployment benefits improperly paid over a three-year period despite a widely available system to cross-check new hires, according to a federal audit.

The Office of Inspector General with the U.S. Department of Labor found the state agency “missed opportunities” and did not implement a system to detect overpayments of unemployment benefits until December 2011, even though that system had been available since 2008. During that time, Georgia overpaid $58.7 million in unemployment benefits and recovered just $14.9 million, or 25 percent, the audit said.