A lack of internal controls brought on by the pandemic led to unemployment checks being sent to prisoners and deceased people, according to an Arkansas Legislative audit report. The Arkansas Division of Workforce Services was forced to relax internal controls that may have spotted some of the fraud as large numbers of people, some who had never filed for unemployment benefits before, flooded the system due to layoffs and shutdowns, according to DWS officials. DWS was also responsible for distributing pandemic unemployment assistance, and sometimes the two systems did not communicate properly, according to the audit. Nearly $273,000 was paid...
