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Audit Objective

Determine whether Highland Central School District (District) officials properly authorized and monitored overtime for non-instructional employees.

Key Findings

District officials did not properly authorize and monitor overtime for non-instructional employees or review the overtime payment calculations. As a result:

• 20 non-instructional employees were paid overtime totaling $203,444, primarily for non-emergencies. With appropriate scheduling, over $60,000 of these overtime payments could have been avoided or reduced.
• 10 employees were overpaid for 189.75 overtime hours totaling $7,551 and seven employees were underpaid for 39.25 overtime hours totaling $1,158.

Key Recommendations

• Adopt policies and procedures with clear guidelines for overtime work, including approval of overtime, to ensure that only necessary overtime charges are being incurred.
• Implement procedures for supervisory review of hours worked for accuracy of manual calculations of overtime charges.
• Ensure these policies and procedures are monitored and enforced.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they plan to initiate corrective action.