Posted by: Stefan Mychajliw, Reporter
Created: 8/17/2006 5:13:40 PM
Updated: 8/18/2006 7:03:44 AM

Was it a case of double-dipping at taxpayer expense Or an honest time-sheet mistake by two parks workers?

A recently released audit shows some people on the Erie County payroll got paid for working two separate jobs at the exact same time of day.

Keep in mind, some people on the public payroll have two Erie County jobs. In some cases, one full-time position. And another part-time Erie County position.

"And that's not necessarily against rules in Erie County," said Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz.

What is against the rules is for workers to get paid for working both jobs at the exact same time.

"You can't get paid for two jobs at once. That's clear," said Erie County Personnel Commissioner John Greenan.

But that's what happened according to an audit of the Erie County Parks Department, released Wednesday from the Erie County Comptroller's office.

"There were two of them, according to the SAP system, who were working both jobs at the same time. And that of course cannot happen. It's one thing to be working 15 hours at one job, 25 hours on another, but it's not fair to taxpayers or anyone else that someone should be double-dipping so to speak, where they're working both jobs at the same time, receiving both salaries, and receiving multiple benefits," added Poloncarz.

Erie County’s computer system, called "SAP", shows one parks worker got paid for working two jobs at the same time on July 28th, 2004. And another worker got paid for calling in sick on November 8th, 2004, and working his other job at the same time.

Now the Erie County Personnel Office plans to pull the actual timesheets out of storage, to determine if these were at best honest mistakes, or at worst, fraud.

"Neither this office or the Comptroller's office have seen the specific time sheets. Once those are brought out of off-site storage facility, we'll have a better indication of what occurred here. If in fact the employee was overpaid, the amount would be deduced from his next check. If it was an intentional act by the employee, not only would the money be deducted, but appropriate disciplinary action would occur," added Greenan.

According to the Erie County Comptroller’s audit, a total of seven parks workers have two positions within Erie County government.

The audit recommends managers within the Parks Department to review all of their timesheets over the past two years, to determine if other workers were paid twice as well.

"What we're watching is taxpayer's money. I'm a representative of the taxpayers of Erie County. And everything that is spent in Erie County is the taxpayer's money. So we have to ensure what we're doing is efficient. And we're doing it the best way possible. It doesn't matter the dollar value. Because there are times in which we're going to identify millions of dollars in cost overruns. And times in which it's going to be thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars. But each one is a dollar. And each one is taxpayer's dollars. And we have to be able to find ways to stop those overruns, to stop those problems from happening. And that's what this office can and will do," said Poloncarz.