Audit: State paid $166 million in unemployment benefits incorrectly

Not enough preparedness and no timeline. 

Those were the key factors that the North Carolina House Oversight and Reform Committee heard from officials from the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Division of Employment Security (DES) and State Auditor Beth Wood about an audit Wood’s office did from January 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021, on untimely and improper first-time unemployment benefit payments.