“Aspects of the federal government’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic were marred by outdated state technology software and a crushing volume of beneficiaries that overwhelmed many systems, according to a new report from the watchdog Government Accountability Office.”
“Federal officials said ‘the ability to easily modify data systems to incorporate new flexibilities varies among state and local agencies,’ leading to numerous delays and interoperability challenges across multiple recovery programs related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed in March.”
“Agencies like Health and Human Services reported that states had to coordinate across different data systems to serve existing beneficiaries as well as a surge of new applicants for programs like Electronic Benefit Transfer and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments. Meanwhile, uneven technological sophistication across different states made remote collaboration in the wake of the pandemic caused challenges while coordinating payments for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.”
“According to Department of Labor officials, many states processing unemployment claims were using ‘information technology systems that date as far back as the 1970s’ and crashed under the load of newly laid off workers filing for benefits. The department has provided federal grants, technical assistance and guidance to help modernize those systems, but ‘relatively few’ states conducted adequate load-testing to handle the volume of claims they have received since March.”
“These systems was already straining, with federal and state governments overseeing more than $2.7 billion in improper unemployment payments in 2019, and overseers worry the numbers will look even worse this year as the government has rushed to respond to the economic fallout of the virus…” Read the full article here.
Source: CARES Act delivery hampered by old tech, bad data – By Derek B. Johnson, June 25, 2020. FCW.
