Bill Text: HI SCR37 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 37 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Audit; State Agencies; Salary Overpayments

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-03-20 - (S) The committee on SCA01 deferred the measure. [SCR37 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SCR37-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	37
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

requestING the Auditor to conduct a financial and management audit of those state agencies with salary AND WAGE overpayments.

WHEREAS, a recent investigation revealed that the State has overpaid its employees more than $2,000,000, with hundreds of thousands more in state tax dollars written off as uncollectable and other incorrect pay amounts recovered months or years later from employees who were mistakenly paid too much; and

WHEREAS, the problem has persisted for so long that many state employees have retired or died while still owing the State thousands of dollars they were overpaid by mistake; and

WHEREAS, many of these overpayments happen because Hawaii's state workers are still required to fill out paper forms for vacation or sick leave, and that process is not computerized; and

WHEREAS, if a state employee decides at the last minute to take vacation time at the end of a pay period, the paycheck may have already been cut and the time off not reflected; and

WHEREAS, other salary and wage overpayments occur when an employee has not been to work or has terminated employment and the appropriate department has failed to inform the personnel officer in a timely manner; a reduction in hours worked is not reported; an employee has not reported to work and has exhausted all sick and vacation leave; and leave without pay is not reported; and

WHEREAS, as of December 31, 2011, the overpaid wage balance owed to the State by its employees was more than $1,587,393, with some of these payments dating to 1994; and

WHEREAS, approximately twenty-five percent of the uncollected overpaid wages are attributable to the last two years; and

WHEREAS, state law prohibits officials from collecting overpayments of employees more than two years after the fact, and departments are authorized to write off some overpayments as uncollectable; and

WHEREAS, as a result, hundreds of thousands of dollars that were never collected has been forgiven; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2012, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a financial and management audit of those state agencies with salary and wage overpayments; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the audit include:

(1) The full extent of the overpayments, the total amount repaid, amounts still eligible for repayment, and amounts deemed uncollectable, by department;

(2) Efforts by the State to resolve the overpayments; and

(3) Any recommendations for legislation to address or prevent the issue of salary and wage overpayment and improve the collection of overpayments; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit the audit findings and recommendations to address the issues raised no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and the Auditor.