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An Audit of Salt Lake County Arts & Culture Payroll

Scope

The scope of the audit was from September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022.

Objectives

The audit objectives were to provide reasonable assurance that the internal controls in place are adequate and effective and that the payroll processes comply with all applicable fiscal ordinances, policies, and procedures. Areas of audit focus included the processes and procedures for the following:

  • Onboarding of new employees
  • Timekeeping
  • Special allowances paid through payroll
  • Overtime and compensatory time
  • Reconciliations of payroll time and expenditures
  • Offboarding of terminated employees

Report Highlights

No reconciliation of data transferred to the payroll system.
We tested the accuracy of data transferred over the 16 pay periods. Five employees had variances between TCP and PeopleSoft over four pay periods. Specifically, each of these periods had one to two employees with variances.


Timecards not approved by a supervisor and inadequate segregation of duties
Employee time for PeopleSoft users was not approved by a supervisor for 25 out of 33 (76%) employees, for 523 out of 5,830 (9%) time entries. In addition, we tested 52 employees to ensure that Peoplesoft users entered their own time and where edits or corrections were made, those changes were communicated back to the employee. Nine out of 52 (17%) employees had 44 out of 1044 (4%) time edits that adjusted time worked, pay, or decreased leave banks. However, management did not maintain sufficient documentation to support the entries or to document that the employee was notified.


Outdated and inadequate documentation supporting employee cell phone allowances
During the audit period, 13 Arts & Culture employees received cell phone allowances. For one of the 13 (8%) employees, a new form was not obtained when the employee transferred from a different department. Out of the remaining 12 employees, three (25%) employees’ cell phone bills did not include a cell phone number. Therefore, we could not confirm that the cell phone bill provided was for a cell phone used for County purposes.
For one of the 12 (8%) employees, the bill submitted listed a business name on the account and the cell phone numbers did not match the one listed as a County contact for the employee. The employee did not respond to a request to provide proof of having incurred personal costs eligible for reimbursement.


Termination Requests Submitted After Employees’ Last Working Date
During the audit period, 30 employees terminated from Arts & Culture. We found that for six temporary employees (20%), termination ePARs to remove PeopleSoft access were submitted, on average, 152 days after the employee’s last day. In addition, for two merit employees (7%), termination ePARs to remove PeopleSoft access were submitted, on average, 16 days after the employee’s last day.