The 95-page draft report by Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel focused on the Department of Economic Opportunity’s CONNECT unemployment system, which cost $78 million and began operating in 2013. The system largely crashed last spring when it was inundated with claims as businesses shut down because of the pandemic. Ken Lawson resigned as department director in August, a little more than four months after DeSantis put Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter in charge of shoring up the CONNECT system. AdMiguel’s report awaits review and comments from vendors linked to CONNECT, including Deloitte Consulting, which was a major contractor. Deloitte sought to distance itself from the unemployment system last year, replying to a potential class-action lawsuit in June by saying it has had “no connection” to the online system in more than five years.

ORLANDO, Fla. The firm that originally created Floridas unemployment website CONNECT, which has been called a clunker by the governor, won the state contract by default because it submitted the lowest bid, according to Gov. Deloitte Consulting recently obtained another state contract, causing outrage from lawmakers and Floridians who have had to interact with the unemployment system. Deloitte beat out four other firms for the $135 million contract. There is an ongoing inspector general investigation into the unemployment website contract process including why the contract was amended 14 times. DeSantis said legally he cannot interfere in the state contract selection process.

After four hours of arguments Monday, a Leon County circuit judge will decide whether to move forward with a potential class-action lawsuit stemming from massive problems in Florida’s unemployment-compensation system. Attorneys for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and Deloitte Consulting, a contractor that helped put the online system in place in 2013, argued that Judge John Cooper should dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed after a crush of coronavirus-caused unemployment claims overwhelmed the system this spring. Cooper last month rejected a preliminary injunction that plaintiffs sought to force the Department of Economic Opportunity to “fix” the system. Department of Economic Opportunity attorney Daniel Nordby argued Monday, in part, that the lawsuit should be dismissed because of the constitutional separation of powers between judges and the executive branch. The plaintiffs’ attorneys filed the lawsuit in April after major problems with Florida’s CONNECT online unemployment system, which even Gov.