WORKERS PAD THEIR PAY IN SERVING KIDS COUNTY AUDITORS DISCOVER 100,000 WRONGLY POCKETED.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON

Staff Writer

Los Angeles County children's services workers pocketed at least $100,000 in unwarranted overtime and bonus pay amid lax oversight and a payroll system riddled with problems, according to an audit released Wednesday.

In the second review of the Department of Children and Family Services in the past month, auditors cited numerous instances of overpayments and underpayments because of incorrect timecards, errors in payroll-system input, and misapplications of payroll rules and regulations.

In one case, auditors reviewed 30 employees who work at the 24-hour Child Protection Hotline or the Emergency Response Command Post who each averaged $26,000 in overtime in 2005.

"The employees' supervisors ... indicated that they often approve employees' overtime forms without knowing whether the employee actually worked the overtime," auditors wrote.

"This was particularly true at the hotline and command post because there are multiple supervisors and employees working various shifts."

The audit follows one last month that found that the agency charged with protecting the region's children spent millions of dollars on unnecessary and overpriced supplies, violated county spending limits and has such a shoddy inventory program that it can't account for all its equipment.

But DCFS Chief Deputy Director Susan Kerr said Wednesday that the department is taking action on problems raised in the audit. "It's going to be a combination of issuing clear, written policies and procedures and giving workers the necessary training," Kerr said.

"We've already issued instructions that managers have to sign daily absence reports for their sections. And we're developing policies and procedures, where necessary, and have arranged for the auditors' staff to come and train our staff in some of the areas where they found deficiencies."

The most recent audit reviewed overtime, industrial-accident payments and bonus pay.

The Board of Supervisors has expressed growing concern in recent years about timecard abuses in county government. Overtime costs shot up from $296 million in 2003-04 to $423 million in 2005-06.

In audits of other agencies, investigators have found "systemic deficiencies," with hundreds of investigations under way, and increasing numbers of employees are being fired and disciplined for timecard abuses.

In the recent review of the DCFS' payroll and overtime system, auditors noted at least one instance that is being investigated as a possible criminal action.

"We also noted two employees who regularly signed each other's overtime forms and instances where the employees may have forged a supervisor's signature," Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley said.

"We referred this matter to our Office of County Investigations."

Auditors also reviewed payroll data for 20 employees who were paid sick-leave benefits and found that nine workers went from using part-time sick pay -- or being absent without pay -- to taking full-time sick-pay leave without a department head's approval. The result was $53,000 in overpayments.

In industrial-accident payments, auditors found that DCFS payroll employees did not update the payroll system when one employee went out on workers' compensation leave. The employee continued to receive regular pay, plus temporary disability payments, resulting in a $19,315 overpayment, auditors said.

In another case, four employees continued to receive temporary disability payments after they returned to work, resulting in $18,000 in overpayments.

Auditors also found that six employees received bilingual bonuses after being absent for more than 60 consecutive days, resulting in $1,100 in overpayments.

In a written response to the audit, DCFS Director Trish Ploehn said she wants to start a quality-assurance program.

The program would randomly sample 5 percent to 10 percent of payroll transactions each month to determine whether appropriate procedures are being followed and salaries and benefits are accurate.

"We agree with all of the recommendations in the report," Ploehn wrote. "In the near future, we will provide the board a detailed report on our progress."

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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