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SSIC finds widespread fraud, waste and abuse in overtime payments
Tuesday,
April 29, 2008
The Senate Select Investigative Committee uncovered fraud, waste and abuse of both local and federal funds in its investigation of excessive overtime and compensatory time payments at Treasury, Agriculture and Port Administration.
The SSIC report which was presented to the Senate and the governor today listed six major deficiencies which allowed the abuses to go unchecked for several years. The Treasury Computer system is not tamper proof and data can be manipulated by personnel; There are no controls to ensure that personnel who are not entitled to overtime under ASG personnel rules do not receive overtime payments; Straight overtime is not defined or included in personnel regulations; Directors and administrators are not knowledgeable of personnel rules. Personnel of the departments of Agriculture, Customs. Airport, and payroll division of Treasury intentionally used fraudulent means to earn overtime, and this may be more widespread in ASG; And exaggerated rates, some more than five times the normal rate were used to compute and compensate for holiday pay, straight overtime and annual leave for a certain group of employees.
The Committee illustrates the vast disparity between budgeted salaries and the actual wages which the employees under investigation were paid, discrepancies in the computation of compensatory time and holiday pay and questionable hours worked. The employees identified in the report are Mefiposeta Ofoia, who formerly headed security at the Airport, Uopele Ofoia, an employee of the Department of Agriculture, Elisapeta Sualeva also of Agriculture and Veni Ofoia, a supervisor at customs. In May of last year, the SSIC asked Attorney General Fepuleai Afa Ripley for a criminal investigation on the overtime scam. The request did not name individuals but said that the SSIC had uncovered misconduct by employees of the Payroll Division, Customs, Department of Agriculture and the Airport Division warranting a thorough criminal probe. A criminal investigation by police began in January.
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