Audit Busts Labor Department over free lunches to employees

There is nothing like an ice cream social or an occasional free lunch to motivate and reward employees to show your appreciation, but the Georgia Department of Labor, under the management of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler took that gesture too far when he fed workers of that state department for a year with funds designated for unemployment benefits. 

At the beginning of COVID-19, the Labor Department began providing meals to 1,026 of the agency’s workers across Georgia, leaving taxpayers to pick up the $1.1 million dollar tab from state and federal funds. The state audit says meals began in March 2020 up to June 2021 and nearly half of the money came from U.S. government grants meant to pay unemployment claims. 

The meal program was discontinued this summer only after DOAS started asking questions after a labor department official contacted them in January 2020 asking for its credit limit to be increased to buy more food. The labor official dropped the request, but DOAS continued its inquiry and DOL began offering shifting descriptions of the program. Labor officials were caught backtracking on responses they had provided. They originally reported 60 employees were receiving the free meals, but later admitted to auditors that this number was untrue. They would eventually come clean, telling officials that all 1,026 Georgia labor employees received the meals at 41 locations. In addition, DOL first told auditors that the program lasted 150 days, but later said “employees were fed every day.” All food purchases for the labor department’s state issued credit card, also known as a P-cards, were finally blocked by DOAS for “noncompliance with statewide policies.”

Scott McAfee, the Georgia Inspector General, pointed to the state constitution’s ban on using taxpayer resources for gifts, and says what labor did may have violated that ban. 

In response, Butler defended his agency’s actions, saying he had permission to feed the entire labor department workforce for that period of time. He also made a claim that the meals allowed employees to stay on the job and process more unemployment claims during the pandemic than the office had in the past 10 years. 

Butler’s comments run afoul of what was being reported for months about the Department of Labor. Following a massive wave of job losses beginning in 2020, and an agency understaffed, countless jobless workers found themselves on a cliff and about to fall over as they waited in limbo for responses to inquiries, or a live person to talk to instead of leaving messages on voicemail. Unemployed workers were experiencing the unimaginable with offices being closed, calls not being returned by labor workers, emails not being answered, and the labor department workers moving at a snail’s pace at processing claims.

Alex Atwood is the head of the Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) and the official whom Butler claims to have received permission for the year long feeding. Butler said of Atwood, “I fully explained to him the reasons why we were doing it — to keep our people safe, to minimize bringing the COVID-19 virus into our buildings and to require all the individuals who work here to work all through the day.” 

Labor Department officials are pointing to this conversation for cover, claiming that they received permission to treat the meals free from the state’s normal requisition process. They are getting pushback from officials from Atwood’s office who said guidance was given, but the meals exceeded the limited request that was originally made by Butler. 

Per McAfee, “By offering to purchase meals, DOL removed any incentive for individual employees to prepare and pack their own meal, a practice that is generally more cost-effective and efficient when compared to retail purchases.” 

As a spotlight is shown on this latest issue within the problematic Department of Labor, Butler has more to worry about than the recent audit. He has challenges in the race for the job he holds coming from the right and left in 2022. State Sen. Bruce Thompson is running to replace him as the Republican primary nominee. Thompson says the labor department is broken under Butler and needs new leadership. 

Democratic challenger, State Rep. William Boddie, said “Georgians who lost their jobs, through no fault of their own, could not afford lunch for themselves or their families during the pandemic because their employment benefits were unreasonably delayed. The people of Georgia had to follow the policy and procedure to get unemployment compensation, however, under the leadership of Mark Butler, DOL staff took guidance from DOAS and used it as a blank check to spend close to a million dollars of taxpayers money for food.”