Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Judge admits double entry books on payroll claims

Discussion “tiptoed into the criminal...”

Waco – What started off as a discussion of a procedural error prompted District Attorney Abel Reyna to advise County Commissioners to seek the advice of their attorney.

In a dispute over accounting of a claim for compensatory hours worked by a departing clerk of Justice Court Pct. 7, Judge Jean Laster Boone freely admitted she and her chief clerk have been keeping double entry books in overtime hours accounted as “compensatory” time paid instead of overtime.

Records turned in to the payroll department showed that a departing employee had made a claim for a large number of hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week during her time as an employee.

But a separate record kept internally in the Court's payroll system showed she had worked many hours of overtime not turned in on payroll records at the time the pay period came to an end.

In an audio recording of the discussion, Commissioner Kelly Snell is clearly heard asking if it's not true that the employee – and the Judge – had both asserted in writing that the employee worked but 40 hours during the affected pay periods.

County Auditor Stan Chambers spoke up and said that now that the employee is leaving, she is seeking to be paid from her “compensatory bank.” Several members of the Court then remarked that the record reflects that the hours worked were 40, and 40 hours only. There is no other record to be had, other than one kept as a separate account, internally, in the Justice Court's records.

Judge Boone assured the Court that she and her staff will in the future use the county's payroll records system to keep track of the actual hours worked.

When questions from County Judge Jim Lewis, Commissioners Ben Perry, Kelly Snell and Joe Mashek showed that the judge and her staff had engaged in the double entry scheme, District Attorney Abel Reyna, who was visiting the Court in regard to another matter, stepped in. He advised them to seek the counsel of their attorney before proceeding any further.

A computerized 26-week payroll system rejected by the Court earlier this year was specially designed to prevent such discrepancies; had they stuck with the new system – one that had been paid for out of budgeted funds - it would have prevented any such misunderstanding, according to Mr. Chambers.
Under the system used at present, supervisors fill out time sheets; they and the employee countersign them, and the payroll department makes the payment.

Then the payroll clerks in the County Treasurer's office audit the records to make sure the payment is correct.

Under the system Mr. Chambers advocated, the audit would be done first, then the payment would have been made.

There are many suits in equity filed each year on the county's behalf to obtain judgments against employees who have been overpaid, he said at the time. Many of them go uncollected, though the County is obligated to pay attorneys' fees and court costs in an effort to recoup the losses in erroneous payments.

But the argument fell on deaf ears after employees of the Sheriff's Department and other staff members complained bitterly about the new “trust, but verify” accounting system. They said they would actually be paid less each year, though the diminishment would have been only the amount paid for each pay period for a 40 hour work week. The actual amount of yearly salary would have remained the same, aggregated over a year's time.

“I will be defending my system to the end,” said Mr. Chambers. “The system that I suggested would have given us a chance to audit first...

“The discussion had crossed over from a matter of a procedural error and kind of tiptoed into the criminal,” he added.

“Mr. Reyna put a stop to it, and he should have.”

To hear an audio recording of the remarks that led to Mr. Reyna's admonishment, one need only click the widget below:

23 comments:

  1. Member I'm not a big CPA like Mr. Chambers, but how does a payroll system that audits after a check is issued, fix a problem with Judge Laster Boone keeping two different sets of books? If the Payroll department doesn't have access to the "in house" books and was not even aware of their existence, how are they supposed to be able to allow for those?

    Sounds like Mr. Chambers is beating a tired old dead horse and, like Judge Laster Boone, doesn't seem to want to comply with Commissioners Court rulings. Makes you wonder if Mr. Chambers even understands Finances.

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  2. "Under the system Mr. Chambers advocated, the audit would be done first, then the payment would have been made." Think there might be a reason why you're not a big CPA like Mr. Chambers? Huh? - The Legendary

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  3. That still does not answer the question of how Mr. Chambers can audit a second set of books if he does not know about second set of books.

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  4. Still whining that he didn't get his way on payroll......

    And by the way, if Laster doesn't report it, then it still doesn't get entered Stan.......

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  5. So Mr. Chambers' system would allow for the auditing of books that no one knew existed? I've never heard of such a system existing. I understand that Mr. Chambers wants a system to audit it first. I remember reading his unending griping about switching from 24 pay periods to 26, while I don't see the number of pay periods having anything to do with auditing before or after. The time of the audit is a policy change IMO, and is a separate issue from the number of pay periods and the ability to audit unknown and undiscovered books. The Commissioners could change the time of the audit without having to do anything else. But a big CPA like Mr. Chambers seems to think changing the number of pay periods fixes everything.

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  6. Give it a week, this will be a non story almost as quickly as her leaving bodies on the side of the road to rot so she can enjoy her holiday

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  7. Or maybe Chambers knew the extra set of books existed, so that's how his system could have caught it. Fact is, Chambers has shown he doesn't know jack about auditing and seems much more concerned with stirring the pot then doing his job. Shouldn't he be more concerned with auditing Judge Laster's "in house" books right now? Afterall, this wasn't a case of the system failing, it was a case of Judge Laster once again not following the rules.

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  8. All due respect, these comments of yours are obtuse and ridiculous. If the Court had stuck with the new payroll accounting system, all pay claims would have been filed in a timely fashion, their veracity audited prior to writing the checks, and only those timely filed paid. Why is that so hard to understand? I think you know the reason to that one. If you just want to play dumb in public, go head on. I think I would keep my mouth shut in a case like that, but - well, you know... you the one with the mouth, so - uh, g'head. - The Legendary

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  9. The real story,the commissioners court,no county attorney at commissioners court,a trail before them ,if you attend.

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  10. No, Judge Laster played damn in public by having her own separate books that dispute the official timesheets she certified as being correct when she knew they were not. The Court and everyone outside of her office is only now learning about these "in house" books that she kept without anyone's knowledge outside of her office, which is illegal. I see the other poster's point. Mr. Chambers claims that his system would have caught these errors before the paychecks went out. If so, then why had his office caught these errors after previous paychecks had gone out? Judge Laster admitted she had been doing this for some time. If Judge Laster hadn't raised such a fuss and more or less incriminated herself in open court, Mr. Chambers still wouldn't know about the errors, because there weren't any errors made by the Payroll Department. The error is the criminal offense of Judge Laster's certification of false documents while keeping her own private records.

    The plain simple fact is, additional records existed without anyone's knowledge of it. Changing the number of pay dates, wouldn't have caught this. Changing when checks were audited wouldn't have caught this. Only a comprehensive audit of all the records, both known and unknown, would have caught this, or someone coming forward with the knowledge these books existed, which is what has happened here.

    If you want to drink Mr. Chambers' kool-aid, be my guest. I know from reading your blog here, you don't like to be wrong, even in the face of facts. But there is no way a different number of pay periods and/or an audit before checks were released could have caught this. I know, because I have been making my living for years as a forensic accountant. This is what I do, and I can tell you unequivocally, that your or Mr. Chambers' opinion has no bearing on the facts.

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  11. You still cannot audit a set of books if you do not know about it. As for having, time to audit payroll checks before they go out ones payroll needs to run in arrears. This is true weather one is running 26 weeks or a 24 week payroll. To have payroll run in arrears the Commissioner’s Court would have to make a simple policy change.

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  12. All this is apparently a little too fast for you folks. No one has ever said you can audit accounts that are unknown. The only thing in the world anyone has ever said is that there was a new payroll system put in place that would not pay until pay records, timely filed, were audited. At that point, the check would be written, the account paid. Under the old system, supervisors fill out unaudited time sheets and the bill is paid - often before the hours are actually worked. When an audit shows an error, the County has no recourse other than to either seek a judgment in court, or deduct overpayments from salaries. It's all needlessly complicated, and it's all about certain employees' claiming that if they are paid on a more frequent basis - 26-weeks - they will be paid less. Not true. The individual base pay amounts would be smaller, but the yearly aggregate would be the same. In fact, the payroll department paid a big fine price to program the new system, only to be countermanded by 3 members of the commissioners court who demanded a return to the old way of doing things. Do yourself a favor. Don't be ridiculous. - The Legendary

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  13. NO, I think all this is apparently a little too fast for
    the Legendanry,The McLennan County Auditor, AND the dead horse you both keep beating!!

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  14. Thanks to the legendary for your blog,the person above can not even spell.

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  15. Thank you. I started following this story months ago. The practice of turning in time sheets in advance, unverified and unaudited - the hours at yet unworked - is a very costly one for taxpayers. When the payments are made in error, the county goes after a judgment in court, and the results are very unpredictable.

    If the Treasurer's office was able to audit the pay claims in advance, then make the payments, it would completely eliminate the confusion. Obviously, these people don't want that. It's not in your best interest. You aren't getting your money's worth, and it's not a dead horse, by any means. It's fraudulent, a misapplication of funds, and to go along with filing two entries of a pay claim, one that shows 40 hours, then make another for additional hours of pay after the fact, is no doubt a clear case of official misconduct.

    These people have done things this way for so long, they don't even realize that. It can't be both ways, that a person worked 40 hours, but at a later date, attests that in fact there were many hours of overtime to be claimed. To admit it in open court is quite a scandal, I would way.

    Thank you for your candor. Your remark is well appreciated. - The Legendary

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  16. What the two previous Anonymous posts said were 100% correct and accurate. I also served as a forensic auditor and CPA for over many many years. If you believe someone's yarn about supervisors putting hours on the time sheets before they were actually worked, you have allowed yourself to be deluded. If you choose to trust your DeVry or wherever accounting education, I will pray for anyone who brings their accounting or tax returns to you - it is obviously not your area of expertiese.

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  17. As a CPA, then, you should not mind signing your post with your name and license number. It may interest you to know that nothing has been published herein, other than anonymous posts, that is not based on the public record. The truth is an absolute defense against the kind of rubbish you are pedaling.

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  18. Just check out how the county does the budget another scandal,watch your taxes go up, no conservatives on the commissioners court,three democrats and two that don't know whats going on.

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  19. The Legendary, affiant of record, saith, "When are all you jokers gonna wake up, smell the atmosphere, and realize, heart of your hearts, that the old stone palace of justice is just a very fancy ornament built on top of a sewer where they pump evil non-stop?"

    No sugar candy coating, no rose petal aroma - nada, baby. It's just how things is, y'all. "Come on, people; we're though the looking glass, here. Black is white and white is black." - Jim Garrison, former District Attorney of Orleans Parish

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  20. Do you want to see the budget and your taxes go up,show up to the commissioners court tuesday,I bet there will be no one from the tea party speaking up,they want Cruz ,but do not know what he will do,another joke in the county for the tea party,they surely need to be investigated also.

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  21. "When questions from County Judge Jim Lewis, Commissioners Ben Perry, Kelly Snell and Joe Mashek showed that the judge and her staff had engaged in the double entry scheme, District Attorney Abel Reyna, who was visiting the Court in regard to another matter, stepped in. He advised them to seek the counsel of their attorney before proceeding any further.


    A computerized 26-week payroll system rejected by the Court earlier this year was specially designed to prevent such discrepancies; had they stuck with the new system – one that had been paid for out of budgeted funds - it would have prevented any such misunderstanding, according to Mr. Chambers.
    Under the system used at present, supervisors fill out time sheets; they and the employee countersign them, and the payroll department makes the payment."

    How?

    The way your article is written implies that Stan Chambers' system would fix the problem caused by Laster-Boone's double books. If it doesn't fix the problem as you've stated in the comments section, then why include Chambers' comments in the article, they aren't relevent.

    The payroll system had nothing to do with this problem, Laster-Boone did. Stan Chambers' only comments on this problem should be, "I've got 3 auditors at Laster-Boone's office checking and double checking every scrap of paper in the building." Maybe if Chambers spent less time polticing and more time auditing, his office would have caught this violation ahead of time. Or maybe the Sheriff's Office wouldn't be $2 million over-budget and are taxing going up 8% to cover them. Chambers is nothing but a failure at his job. The county should save some money for the Sheriff's Office's mismanagement by firing Chambers and Laster-Boone, but I guess the law will catch up to Laster-Boone for misusing public money.

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  22. I have no words. My talker - both north and south - done failed me. I give up. - The Legendary

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  23. Great blog and more payroll services detail please visit my site..Accounting

    and payroll services

    ReplyDelete