The final report for OCA Investigation #2106031 is now available.

We investigated a complaint about DES that the agency did not provide a resident with her Unemployment Insurance tax records in a timely manner.  The complainant requested two years of Unemployment Insurance tax records concerning herself.  Four months later, she complained to our office that she had not received the records, and we contacted DES.  Our office made several attempts to have DES quickly resolve the matter and explain the delay.  DES did not provide the records or explain the delay.  Following additional contacts with the agency, DES notified us on November 11, 2021 (almost seven months since the complainant requested the records) that it provided the requested records to the complainant.

In our report, we make the following findings: 

  1. DES acted contrary to law by improperly denying the Complainant’s request for public records.
  2. DES acted unreasonably and performed in an inefficient or discourteous manner by failing to properly respond to the Complainant’s request or provide her with the requested records in a timely manner. Similarly, DES acted unreasonably by failing to provide a timely explanation for its actions to the OCA.

 We also make the following recommendations:

  1. We recommend that DES review and take action to improve its response times for fulfilling records requests.
  2. A: We recommend that DES review and take action to improve its communication with members of the public and its handling of issues raised by the public, particularly those with significant and/or time-sensitive issues.

B:  We recommend that DES review and take action to improve its communication with the Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide’s office regarding constituent complaints about DES.

C:  We recommend that the Legislature consider investigating or auditing DES regarding the agency’s communication with constituents, including how the agency receives and addresses requests and complaints.

DES disagreed with the first finding and agreed with the second finding.

For the first recommendation DES stated it “will take action that differs from the recommendation to address the finding.”  For the second set of recommendations, DES said “[t]he Department has already implemented the Arizona Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide recommendations as outlined” in its response to our report.  DES’s entire response to our report is included at the end of our report for your review.