Herricks Union Free School District – Overtime (2019M-127)

Issued Date
August 30, 2019

[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether District officials properly approved and monitored overtime for custodial employees.

Key Findings

  • Did not preapprove and adequately monitor overtime for custodial employees.
  • Paid overtime to 10 custodial employees totaling $35,017 or 43 percent of total overtime paid to these employees, primarily for non-emergencies. However, with appropriate scheduling some of these overtime payments could have been avoided or reduced.
  • Paid $29,135 in overtime to employees who substituted for other employees absent on their scheduled workdays. More than 40 percent of these absences were preapproved and with appropriate scheduling these overtime payments could have been avoided or reduced.

Key Recommendations

  • Adopt payroll policy with clear guidelines and procedures for overtime work, including preapproval of overtime.
  • Consider scheduling employees to substitute for those employees whose absences are preapproved to reduce overtime cost.

District officials agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.