NORMAN — The Cleveland County District Attorney’s office has requested a “special audit” of a county employee’s timesheets, the state auditor’s office confirmed Tuesday.
Auditor’s spokesman Terri Watkins said Cleveland County DA Greg Mashburn requested a detailed audit of a county employee’s timesheets in a July 20 letter.
“It will be an in-depth look at this one issue,” Watkins said. “In this particular case it’s the time records.”
Mashburn’s request follows the announcement last week that his office was investigating what Watkins described as “some fairly large discrepancies" in a county employee's vacation and sick leave.
Those problems were uncovered in the county’s annual county, released July 6.
That audit showed a single county employee’s “vacation, sick and compensatory times use, as noted on leave balance sheets, (did) not agree with time sheets.”
The audit also said the “employees ending balance for vacation leave was negative 224.42 hours while the ending balance for the employee's sick leave was negative 15.75 hours.”
In addition, the employee had full leave accruals “despite not having worked a complete month and having negative vacation and compensatory balances.”
The employee, a female, was not identified.
In his letter, Mashburn requested “a detailed audit regarding the employee time sheets of District No. 1 in Cleveland County specifically regarding the affected employee who apparently shows more leave utilized than accrued.”
The issue raised by the employee, Mashburn’s letter said, “is the documents provided for your audit did not show any carry over of accumulated leave balances.”
Mashburn’s letter said the employee transferred from the sheriff’s department to District No. 1 in 1997.
“We would like to establish a baseline for leave computation,” the letter said. “We would also like to see copies of your 2004 and 2005 employee work/time sheets if possible as to District No. 1, as it is claimed those will help establish an accurate leave balance regarding the affected employee.”
The special audit will be conducted as state officials also begin a requested “turnover” audit for District No. 1.
That new turnover audit, Watkins said, was requested by new District No. 1 commissioner Rod Cleveland.
“What it boils down to is we will be actually doing two audits, now, in Cleveland County,” she said. “A special audit and a turnover audit for District No. 1.”
Watkins said staff members from the state auditors office began the turnover audit on Tuesday but had not started the new, special audit. She said no time frame for completing either audit had been set.
“We will take however long it takes,” she said. “It depends on what the records look like.”
Assistant District Attorney Dave Batton — who is leading the investigation — was out of his office on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
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