Deloitte defends work on Florida s unemployment system
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Officials from a company that played a key role in setting up Florida’s much-criticized online unemployment system defended the firm’s work Monday, as Democratic lawmakers argued it launched something that wasn t ready and was designed by the state to fail.
John Hugill, a principal with Deloitte Consulting, told members of the Senate Select Committee on Pandemic Preparedness and Response that company officials are sympathetic to the challenges that people had when using the CONNECT unemployment system during the past year as the coronavirus pandemic led to massive job losses.
Deloitte Consulting was among the vendors who sold Florida a $78 million unemployment compensation system that buckled and broke for many thousands of Floridians who tried to file claims after being thrown out of work by the coronavirus pandemic.
Company representatives were called to task on the system s failures in a 2-hour appearance Monday before the Florida Senate s Select Committee on Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
The bottom line: No one including Deloitte, paid $46 million, foresaw the tsunami of unemployment applications that washed over and foundered the system. It was designed to handle unemployment levels produced by the Great Recession over a decade ago – about 10% – but started crashing when the jobless rate exceeded 13%.
It wasn’t us Monday, the architects of Florida’s online unemployment system told lawmakers they were not to blame for CONNECT’s failure amid a surge of claims last year.
It wasn’t us Monday, the architects of Florida’s online unemployment system told lawmakers they were not to blame for CONNECT’s failure amid a surge of claims last year.