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By M. Lisa Monroe
Express News Staff
The Town of Webb Union Free School District underwent a routine state audit covering the time span of July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2007. The audit found that eight of TOW UFSD’s employees had been overpaid by a total of $17,074.
Some of the overpayment was due to an unusual fiscal year that resulted in 27 pay periods instead of the usual 26. When weekly payments were calculated, they were rated at 1/26th of a person’s salary, but since there were 27 payments in 2005-06, it should have been calculated at 1/27th, according to the audit. TOW UFSD Board of Education President Julie Zaykoski explains that when the overpayments were brought to the Board’s attention, they acted on the information immediately.
“As soon as these overpayments were brought to the attention of the Board of Education, the Board implemented a corrective action plan, including reclaiming the overpayment amounts from involved employees. These employees represent a range of job positions, with the exception of teachers,” said Zaykoski.
During the 2005-06 school year, the CSE Chairperson, Business Manager/Treasurer, District Clerk, Head Custodian, and Principal were all overcompensated by a total of $10,499 with individual overpayments ranging from $123 to $3,185.
In addition to those employees, the former school nurse was overpaid by $1,174 because of a calculation error that didn’t take into account that she worked a seven and a half hour workday not an eight hour workday.
A computer repair technician was paid for 120 days and only worked 111 days, for an overpayment amount of $1,174.
The former superintendent was paid for nine days at the end of June 2005 at a per diem rate even though her annual salary already covered that time period. She was overpaid in the amount of $3,782.
“The Board of Education has implemented a corrective action plan, per the recommendations of the State Auditors, Audit Committee, Internal Auditor, and External Auditor addressing the needs for improvement identified in the audit,” said Zaykoski.
The corrective actions taken by the Board are as follows:
—The segregation of the duties of business manager and treasurer. The positions used to be filled by one person. The Board has separated the positions, and now Superintendent Don Gooley is the business manager and Diane DeLude is the treasurer.
—The procedure for check signing has been made more strict. The treasurer will now personally oversee the signing of all checks.
—The superintendent will now review all payroll changes.
—The business manager will now have read-only access to the district’s computerized accounting records. Write access has been limited to the treasurer.
—Brad Donovan, the district’s claim auditor, now reviews all special aid fund claims and provides a copy of what has been paid to the Board.
A copy of the state’s complete audit can be found online at www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/schools/2008/webb.pdf.