TheLabor Department said that the Virginia Employment Commission, which ran out of money needed to pay unemployment benefits, improperly paid $166 million in 2009 to residents who didn’t meet eligibility requirements. Most of the overpayments went to people who failed to adequately look for work each week, as the state requires of those who continue receiving unemployment benefits, said Auditor of Public Accounts Walter Kucharski, an independent auditor who serves the state. The news comes on the heels of the states’ borrowing nearly $350 million to shore up its Unemployment Trust fund.

The Labor Department figures may be exaggerated, the auditor conceded, because the criteria used to constitute a legitimate search for work is ill-defined.