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Governor Ron DeSantis plans to investigate why the state spent $77 million on an unemployment technology system that has cracked under the pressure of the wave of claims caused by the coronavirus.

There is also a call to ban the company behind the technology from a pending state bid until taxpayers get their money back.

At nearly every public event these days, the first question the Governor gets is about the state’s troubled unemployment system.

Friday, he was more forceful than ever in calling for an investigation.

“There’s going to be a whole investigation that’s going to need to be done about how the state of Florida paid $77 million for this thing,” said DeSantis.

After major and costly upgrades to the computer system, the state has sent claimants ten times more cash, just over $598 million, than it did in the previous 30 days.

In recent days the Governor has called the system a ‘clunker’ and said it was designed to fail.

“And we should hold those accountable who built botched systems,” said Rouson.

He’s calling for Deloitte, the company who built the system, to be banned from a pending state bid.

“We should look at the prospects of allowing a company that’s in the shoes of Deloitte, before we grant bids to them,” said Rouson.

The company was late delivering the system back in 2013 and paid $15,000 a day fines.

At the time, Deloitte blamed then Governor Rick Scott’s office for 1,500 design changes.

In calling for the bid ban, Rouson points to the company’s track record, here and elsewhere.

“You can Google their troubles in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and other states where they have either been fired or fined,” said Rouson.

A lawsuit filed last week names Deloitte and seeks to get the company to pay damages to the state and a class of unemployed who have had trouble getting benefits.

A hearing is scheduled next week.

Deloitte provided the following response:

When the state accepted the system and we completed our work in 2015, CONNECT was vastly outperforming the systems it replaced and processing claims more efficiently and accurately than ever before. We have not been involved in the system since then. Clearly, any lawsuit involving us would have no merit.”

We also reached out to US Senator Rick Scott’s office for a response. Here it is:

The Governor should ask his Chief of Staff why the Crist Administration picked Deloitte as the vendor. That would be a good place to start. Right now, every state in the country is struggling to handle the unprecedented volume of suddenly unemployed workers. The important thing is to get relief to people who need it as fast as possible. Crises like this are immune to dumb political squabbles. Real leaders work to solve problems and get the job done. Senator Scott is focused on solving problems to help the people of Florida during this  crisis.  Chris Hartline, Communications Director.