Streets overcharged Stormwater $300,000

A recent audit of financial transactions between the Colorado Springs Streets Department and Stormwater Enterprise has uncovered overbilling and hundreds of hours of overtime, raising red flags about the close relationship between the departments and oversight of supervisors.

The Colorado Springs City Auditor's Office found that the city's Streets Department overcharged the Stormwater Enterprise $300,000 for vehicle maintenance and personnel.

It also found that one supervisor was paid more than $35,000 in overtime in 2007, with no one reviewing the employee's timecards, auditors said.

The findings resulted from the city auditor's examination of how the city determines the amount of money to transfer between the Streets Department and the Stormwater Enterprise, which share equipment and personnel.

Time worked and equipment used by each is recorded in a computer database called TRAX, administered by the Streets Department.

Stormwater, an independent city enterprise that began collecting fees from property owners in 2007, pays the city for services, such as payroll, vehicle maintenance and human resources.

The overcharge was repaid, and steps have been taken to prevent such problems in the future, city officials said.

Skilled-maintenance supervisor Mike Gigg, a 28-year city employee, submitted 779 hours of overtime last year - the equivalent of 20 weeks of full-time work.

"Staff does not doubt that this employee worked the overtime hours," city spokeswoman Sue Skiffngton-Blumberg said in an e-mail.

She said several snowstorms accounted for most of "this unusual situation."

After the audit flagged the problem, she said, the city adopted new methods that require a manager or director to sign o1/2 on overtime - in advance if possible.

While Gigg's situation was unusual, she said two other supervisors turned in more than 400 overtime hours each, most of it last year, due to "exceptional circumstances."

Auditors suggested that management assess whether more workers need to be hired rather than paying overtime, which amounts to time and a half. For Gigg, it was $45.61 per overtime hour.

Auditors noted that in 2007, Streets overcharged Stormwater $262,405 for fuel and vehicle maintenance. In addition, Streets overcharged Stormwater by $34,621 in salaries of Streets workers.

Auditors said the errors could have been avoided if expense tracking and year-end reconciliation had been done by different people, rather than the same person. They also noted that Stormwater officials didn't check the accuracy of reports showing how much was paid to Streets.

And auditors said TRAX, used to determine distribution of personnel and equipment costs, contained errors, such as equipment being charged for longer duration than the person worked on a specific job.

"While most of these errors were relatively insignificant, the possibility exists that a significant error could occur and go undetected," auditors wrote.

Streets officials said in a written response to auditors that an office specialist was hired to handle administrative tasks, including timecard entries. "Increased accuracy is expected," they wrote. For the full story, please visit http://www.gazette.com/articles/city_39479___article.html/streets_overtime....