Tallahassee – The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity today announced that it will not pay Deloitte Consulting a $3 million installment payment and has instituted a $15,000 per business day penalty against the contractor for its failure to deliver a fully functioning Reemployment Assistance computer system.

Executive Director Jesse Panuccio said, “While Deloitte has made progress over the last few weeks, and many claimants are able to process claims without incident, the bottom line is that the overall system is still not working properly and the base code has not been stabilized.  The people of Florida deserve better and after two months, Deloitte’s failure to provide this functionality is simply unacceptable. They must and will be held accountable to the taxpayers of Florida. Accordingly, DEO is withholding the $3 million payment and imposing liquidated damages of $15,000 per day until the system is fully functional.”

While deficiencies still exist in several program areas, the most pressing issue is the lack of full functionality for the adjudication unit.  Only claims that are flagged for potential ineligibility go through the adjudication function, meaning a majority of claims do not need to be adjudicated. Even when a system is working at full functionality, it takes time to adjudicate claims and there is always an open caseload.  Despite DEO’s increasing staff and working hours in the adjudication unit, the delays engendered by the defects in adjudication functionality have caused the active adjudication caseload—and the wait times for adjudication—to increase to unacceptable levels. Claims flagged for adjudication are being processed, but at a slower rate than full system functionality would allow.  To help process the active caseload, DEO has implemented a variety of system workarounds and will continue to hire additional adjudicators. Nonetheless, it is imperative that Deloitte promptly provide not only full functionality, but deliver an optimized CONNECT system.

DEO is dedicated to serving job-seeking Floridians in their time of need and is currently examining all options to deliver the system that was promised, but the $15,000 per business day fines will remain in place until Deloitte delivers a fully functional system to the State of Florida.  In a letter to Deloitte, Director Panuccio stated, “For some users of the system—claimants needing a financial bridge as they transition back to employment—the delays caused by these defects have proven to be a true hardship. It is simply imperative that Deloitte devote every available resource, and every expert at its disposal, to getting the remaining defects fixed, and fixed now.”