Report I2021-1 Recommendations

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation substantiated, and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should take appropriate disciplinary actions against Employees A and B for their misuse of state time and for their dishonesty when interviewed by General Services' representatives.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation substantiated, and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should recover overpayments made to Employees A and B or adjust their leave balances to account for their missed work time.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation substantiated, and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should implement procedures that provide more accountability for work performed by facilities division maintenance employees,

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, the employee's supervisor should make intermittent contact at the beginning or end of shifts to ensure that his subordinate employees adhere to General Services' expectations.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Social Services should determine the extent of underreported leave during the past three years by conducting a survey of all salaried employees who work nonstandard schedules and reduce leave balances accordingly or recover any overpayments as state law requires.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Social Services should adapt the electronic system so that salaried employees can accurately charge the correct number of hours of leave used when reporting nonstandard whole-workday increments.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Social Services should create policies that address accurate time reporting for salaried employees working nonstandard schedules and provide training to staff regarding these policies.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against Custodian Supervisor A for misusing his work computer to view personal videos for up to two hours each day and for allowing his subordinate to not devote her full time and attention to her work duties.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should take appropriate corrective action against Custodian Supervisor B for allowing two of his subordinates to not devote their full time and attention to their work duties.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the three custodians for failing to devote their full time and attention to their work duties during work hours.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, General Services should require the two custodian supervisors to implement specific procedures to ensure that their subordinate custodians devote their full time and attention to their work duties.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Food and Agriculture should work with the DAA's board of directors to take appropriate disciplinary action against the executive for allowing a relative to stay in state-owned housing and for failing to establish processes at the DAA to ensure that employees' use of state-owned housing is consistent with applicable state laws, regulations, and policies.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Food and Agriculture should require the DAA to establish a housing policy that outlines expectations for employees who stay overnight and includes a section on adequate recordkeeping to ensure that it charges applicable employees each time they stay overnight.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Food and Agriculture should require the DAA to submit annual housing surveys to CalHR and to validate fair market value to determine the daily rate employees must pay each time they stay overnight and to subsequently charge employees that appropriate daily rate.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Food and Agriculture should review other DAAs that provide state-owned housing to ensure that they have housing policies and that they charge employees appropriate daily rates for any overnight stays.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, CDTFA should take appropriate disciplinary action against the administrator for the improper governmental activities described in this report.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, CDTFA should ensure that the administrator signs an Outside Employment Declaration form annually, as the agency's Incompatible Activities Statement requires.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, CDTFA should send a reminder to all of its employees identifying prohibited activities.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Cal State LA should take appropriate disciplinary action against each employee for misusing state time to work at a second job.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Cal State LA should provide the two employees with a written expectation of their work schedule, work hours, and work duties. It should ensure that the employees adhere to to these expectations and that they understand that any secondary employment must not conflict with their Cal State LA duties. In addition, it should ensure that the employees know the process for requesting to change their work schedule.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Cal State LA should provide training to the supervisor of these employees about how to manage staff and ensure that staff work their required number of hours during their scheduled shifts.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Cal State LA should determine whether other employees are working in similar classifications and ensure that these employees are following their required schedules.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, DSH should take appropriate disciplinary action against the employee for her dishonesty in submitting an application that contained false information about her dates of employment and experience.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, DSH should take appropriate disciplinary action against the hiring manager for failing to ensure that the hiring process for the associate analyst position was based on merit and involved a fair, competitive process.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, DSH should strengthen its hiring process to ensure that successful candidates meet the established minimum qualifications for civil service positions.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Caltrans should take the following action by August 2021:

Address inefficiencies in its salary advance process by considering implementation of the key strategies outlined in this report, including requiring every employee who receives a salary advance to be removed from participation in direct deposit; when processing salary advances, issuing a notice to each employee that serves as its first notice of overpayment; and creating a separate, central tracking mechanism and assigning staff to monitor the salary advance collection process.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Caltrans should take the following action by August 2021:

Confer with the Department of Finance to determine whether it should write off all salary advances for which the statute of limitations has passed and it has forfeited its opportunity to collect outstanding funds. Writing off these salary advances will allow Caltrans to focus its efforts on the advances it is still able to pursue.

To remedy the effects of the improper governmental activities this investigation identified and to prevent those activities from recurring, Caltrans should take the following action by August 2021:

Ensure that its staff have access to the equipment necessary to perform the ongoing work of tracking salary advances in a timely manner.