State audit finds "discrepancies" with county timesheets

OKLAHOMA CITY — A state audit of employee time records at Cleveland County’s District 1 office has uncovered some “fairly large discrepancies” in the way those time sheets have been kept, a official with State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan’s office confirmed Friday.

Terri Watkins, McMahan’s spokesman, said the state auditor “believes there is a problem” with a District 1 employee’s time sheets.

“The time sheets and the balance sheets that keep track of vacation, sick leave and compensatory time do not match,” she said. “It was brought to our attention by some county employees.”

Watkins said the audit found several problems, including:

• The vacation, sick and compensatory times use as noted on the leave balance sheets do not agree to the time sheets.

• The June 30, 2006, ending balance for the employee’s vacation leave was negative 224.42 hours.

• The June 30, 2006, ending balance for the employee’s sick leave was negative 15.75 hours.

• Full leave accruals were received despite not having worked a complete month and having negative vacation and compensatory balances.

Watkins said the time sheet problems targeted only one county employee, a unidentified female.

“There are “fairly large discrepancies between the time she has taken off and time she has accrued,” Watkins said. “But it’s difficult for us to piece together exactly how this happened.”

Released July 6, the audit cited the county’s Personnel Policy handbook and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act which requires employees “to keep accurate records of actual time worked by employees, including sick, vacation and compensatory time earned, taken or paid.”

The woman, Watkins said, “appears to have taken quite a bit more leave than was marked on their time sheet.”

The audit also recommended that “all county time sheets be properly calculated and completed and be approved and signed by the employee and the county official after each pay period.”

“We further recommend employee’s pay be reduced for time off when leave balances have been exhausted,” the audit noted.
In their reply to the state auditor’s findings, county officials said they “concur with the State Auditor’s findings and have started the process of implementing procedures for the accountability of employee time records.”

During the time covered by the audit, the county’s District 1 office was led by former Commissioner Bill Graves. Graves died suddenly in April, following complications from surgery. Graves’ first deputy, Mark Meyer has served as interim commissioner since Graves’ death.

On Tuesday, Rod Cleveland, a 40-year-old Norman businessman, was elected to serve the remainder of Graves’ term.

Cleveland — who will be officially sworn into office next Wednesday afternoon — said he was aware of the audit but refused to discuss it until next week. “I really can’t comment on it now,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll review it next week.”

Watkins said information from the audit would be turned over to Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn.

“We will turn it over to the DA to determine whether there was a mistake on the employee’s part or whether the action was criminal,” she said.

Mashburn confirmed “there have been discussions” between his office and McMahan’s but said he had not see the documents.

“I’ve haven’t looked at it yet,” he said late Friday afternoon. “But we will definitely be reviewing it.”