Employee Leave Payroll Audit Fiscal Office and Department of Human Resources January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020

The Cuyahoga County Department of Internal Auditing (DIA) conducted an audit of Employee Leave Payroll for the period January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. During the performance of the external financial statement audit for Fiscal Year ended December 31, 2020, the Ohio Auditor of State issued a finding of recovery due to an erroneous overpayment to an employee on leave. The main objective of the audit was to determine the extent of any additional payment inaccuracies relative to employees on leave as well as assess the adequacy and effectives of the current leave payment process in mitigating the risk of errors or irregularities. The audit procedures of DIA disclosed internal control weaknesses related to payroll and recordkeeping. Internal control and compliance issues were discovered including: inaccurate pays and leave occurred due to clerical and system errors and lack of monitoring controls, pays were issued without appropriate support documentation of time worked or leave taken, employees were paid for time after the employees separated from County employment, manual pay adjustments and checks occurred without appropriate support or documented approval, leave donations and separation payouts lacked appropriate controls and oversight, and inadequate segregation of duties existed in the payroll system as IT employees were responsible at times for recording payroll transactions related to employee leave.