State University of New York

University at Stony Brook: Controls Over Selected Payroll Practices

We identified significant control weaknesses in certain University payroll practices. For example, because of delays in reporting payroll changes, terminated employees were able to obtain paychecks they were not entitled to. In other instances, employees may have been overpaid through deliberate abuses. We determined that a total of $414,236 in payroll overpayments were made during a single one-year period to 335 different individuals. At the time of our audit, $234,254 in such overpayments were outstanding. We also identified weaknesses in controls over overtime, including questionable scheduling practices that led to large overtime payments (e.g., one individual was paid for 121.5 hours of overtime during one two-week period). We recommended that a number of improvements be made in the University’s payroll practices.

For a complete copy of Report 2007-S-67 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.