Washington, DCThere are those who will deny workers the overtime pay that is their due, and then there are those who claim and receive thousands of dollars worth of overtime for work they have not even done. Laws on overtime prohibit both activities, but they do not prevent fraudsters from trying.
A team of auditors from the finance department of the city of Washington, DC has uncovered "blatant time and attendance fraud" and cronyism involving the DC Department of Public Works garbage workers, who have racked up as much as a million dollars of overtime paid out against hours that were never worked.
In fiscal 2009 the department paid out about $3.45 million in overtime, which is over budget. Digging in deeper, the auditors found various examples of time and attendance fraud. One sanitation employee earned $1,435.93 in 10 days, despite not having worked any regular hours during that time. His time sheet did not agree with the overtime earned, yet the payments were approved.
The Washington Examiner obtained and published a draft of the audit on January 15. Auditors blasted executives in the department for failing to adequately monitor attendance for employees and actual time worked, and instead passing the job off to subordinates who took the opportunity to reward friends and relatives in a fraudulent manner.
Auditors found a complete lack of written policies with regard to the issuance of overtime. Moreover, a single staff assistant was given broad authority to approve time sheets.
"We confirm that at one point, the staff assistant was changing [and making changes to] time and attendance information for her sister, her spouse and another employee who had not worked shifts but who had received regular pay," the audit states.
DC's public works committee falls within the purview of Councilman Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, but "this is the first time I'm hearing of this," he told the Examiner. "I don't like hearing it."
The auditors, noting that their report covers fiscal 2009, issued a dire warning concerning the possibility of past indiscretions going back eight years. "We believe…the practices have been ongoing as far back as fiscal 2002," they stated.
They recommended that the city's auditor general be called in to investigate the overtime pay abuses.
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