Report I2010-1045 Recommendation 2 Responses
Report I2010-1045: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Correctional Health Care Services: Both Agencies Wasted State Resources by Improperly Accounting for Leave Taken by Their Employees (Release Date: June 2013)
Case Number I2010-1045
Recommendation #2 To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of
Conduct an audit of the leave accounting system during the past three years to identify instances of nonmanagerial, exempt employees working an alternate schedule at an adult correctional facility being charged incorrect amounts of leave for missed days of work.
Agency Response From October 2016
Corrections reported that it completed its review of leave records for 1,008 nonmanagerial, exempt employees (revised from 1,019 employees it reported previously) who worked an alternate work schedule during calendar years 2011, 2012, and 2013. Corrections stated that it found that the employees owed leave time to it valued at $3.4 million and found that it owed leave time to the employees valued at $1.7 million.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented
Agency Response From October 2015
Corrections reported that it has reviewed the leave records for 742 of 1,019 nonmanagerial, exempt employees who worked an alternate work schedule during calendar years 2011, 2012, and 2013. Corrections stated that thus far, it found that the employees owed leave time to it valued at $1.7 million and found that it owed leave time to the employees valued at nearly $1.1 million. Corrections also stated that it will review the leave records of the remaining 277 nonmanagerial, exempt employees.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From November 2014
In November 2014 Corrections reported that by May 2015 it will complete a three-year audit of leave accounting for current nonmanagerial, exempt employees working an alternate schedule. Corrections had reported previously that it had audited the leave accounting for these employees for fiscal year 2012-13.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From July 2014
Corrections reported that it completed the audit of leave accounting by nonmanagerial, exempt employees working an alternate work schedule at its headquarters during fiscal year 2012-13. Corrections stated that this audit had identified mischarged leave and that it had subsequently corrected the relevant leave records. In addition, Corrections provided us with information regarding several individual errors that it found. However, it did not provide us with a summary of the mischarged leave it identified and the corrections it made. When we requested a summary of the mischarged leave it found during the audit, Corrections stated that it had not specifically totaled the mischarged hours. Moreover, Corrections asserted that it did not have sufficient time after the audit was completed to summarize all of the mischarged leave it identified. We maintain that without a summary of the mischarged leave it found, Corrections has failed to ensure that it does not have systemic issues with regard to mischarged leave of its nonmanagerial, exempt employees.
In addition, Corrections still does not intend to conduct an audit of leave accounting during the previous two fiscal years. Thus, we reiterate that it should complete an audit of leave accounting at all of its facilities and headquarters for fiscal years 2010-11 and 2011-12 as we recommended.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From February 2014
Corrections reported that it completed the audit of leave accounting by nonmanagerial, exempt employees working an alternate work schedule at its headquarters during fiscal year 2012-13. Corrections stated that this audit had identified mischarged leave and that it had subsequently corrected the relevant leave records. In addition, Corrections provided us with information regarding several individual errors that it found. However, it did not provide us with a summary of the mischarged leave it identified and the corrections it made. When we requested a summary of the mischarged leave it found during the audit, Corrections stated that it had not specifically totaled the mischarged hours. Moreover, Corrections asserted that it did not have sufficient time after the audit was completed to summarize all of the mischarged leave it identified. We maintain that without a summary of the mischarged leave it found, Corrections has failed to ensure that it does not have systemic issues with regard to mischarged leave of its nonmanagerial, exempt employees.
In addition, Corrections still does not intend to conduct an audit of leave accounting during the previous two fiscal years. Thus, we reiterate that it should complete an audit of leave accounting at all of its facilities and headquarters for fiscal years 2010-11 and 2011-12 as we recommended.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From November 2013
Corrections reported that it audited leave accounting at all of its correctional facilities for fiscal year 2012-13 and discovered no mischarging of leave for nonmanagerial, exempt employees working an alternate schedule. We found this result surprising, due to the high rate of errors that we discovered at six adult correctional facilities for October 2010 through September 2011, so we have asked Corrections for more information about this audit. Corrections also reported that it plans to complete, by December 2013, an audit of leave accounting by its headquarters employees during fiscal year 2012-13 and advise us of any errors it discovers.
Corrections informed us that due to other workload demands on the staff of its Office of Personnel Services, it does not intend to conduct an audit of leave accounting during the previous two fiscal years as we recommended. However, given the significant number of errors we found at just six adult correctional facilities during one year, we maintain that Corrections should complete an audit of leave accounting at all of its facilities for fiscal years 2010-2011 and 2011-12 as we recommended.