ALBANY – An audit of Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES found that it did not always ensure non-instructional employee overtime was properly monitored, approved and accurately calculated.
The 15 highest overtime earners received overtime totaling $254,820 during the audit period, state inspectors found. “Our review determined BOCES officials may have been able to reduce overtime by up to $28,337, or almost 11 percent,” they reported.
BOCES officials:
- Paid a total of $66,295 to 13 employees for work on Saturdays that included $22,091 additional pay for working overtime on a Saturday. However, the BOCES Classified Employees’ Association collective bargaining agreement (CBA) supports a Tuesday through Saturday work week. Therefore, this overtime may have been avoided if some employees worked Tuesday through Saturday, as outlined by the CBA.
- Paid $5,445 to employees who charged a full day to their leave accruals while working a partial day. Had employees only charged leave for the hours not worked, the overtime payments may have been avoided or reduced.
- Made overtime calculation errors totaling $408 and paid $393 in overtime that was not approved.
The state officials said BOCES should adopt written policies and procedures to convey management’s expectations for reviewing, approving and supporting overtime and that it should ensure overtime is properly monitored.
BOCES officials generally agreed with the state recommendations and indicated they plan to initiate corrective action.
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