Audit of Salt Lake County Solid Waste Management 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
Timecards were not approved by supervisors and inadequate segregation of duties
Government Accountability Office (GAO), December 2000 Publication, “Maintaining Effective Control Over Employee Time and Attendance Reporting,” states, “Primary responsibility for authorizing and approving [Time and Attendance (T&A)] transactions rests with the employee’s supervisor, who approves the employee’s T&A reports. Timekeepers and supervisors must be aware of the work time and absence of employees for whom they are responsible to ensure the reliability of T&A data.”
We reviewed a sample of 25 employees to assess whether Solid Waste Management employee time was reviewed and approved by the employee’s supervisor. We found that 16 employees (64%) had 319 entries (5%) approved by an individual who was not their supervisor according to PeopleSoft, and the individuals’ job title did not identify them as a superior supervisor or manager. Additionally, there were 16 employees (64%) with 416 (7%) of their time entries approved by the same person in both timekeeping application systems.
In a separate test of overtime hours, we noted that seven (30%) out of 23 employees tested with reported overtime hours had approvals in TCP from the Administrative and Fiscal Manager, Office Manager, or Fiscal Coordinator and not their management chain.
