State University of New York

Downstate Medical Center: Practices Related to Payroll Overpayments (Follow-Up Report)

Downstate Medical Center, which is located in Brooklyn, comprises various medical colleges and a 376-bed University Hospital. In audit 2008-S-110, we examined the controls established by the Center for removing employees from the payroll and recovering payroll overpayments. We identified significant weaknesses in these controls, as employees often remained on the payroll after they were no longer employed by the Center. For example, during a period of approximately one year, 118 employees remained on the payroll after they were no longer employed by the Center and received more than $490,000 in paychecks they were not entitled to. We further determined that the Center was not always effective in its efforts to recover such payments. We recommended certain improvements be made in the Center’s controls over such payroll activities. When we followed up on these matters with Center officials, we found that they had made some progress in correcting these problems, but still needed to take additional corrective actions.

For a complete copy of Report 2010-F-11 click here.
For a copy of the 30-day response click here.