Audit Report On The Financial And Operating Practices Of The Kings County District Attorney’s Office

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit determined whether the Kings County District Attorney’s Office is complying with City guidelines for payroll, personnel, timekeeping, purchasing, and inventory control. The scope of the audit was the period July 1, 2003, through June 30, 2005 (Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005).

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Kings County District Attorney’s Office (District Attorney’s Office) adhered to several aspects of Comptroller’s Directive #13, #14, and #24. Regarding Personal Services (PS), we found that sampled employees were bona fide and their time and attendance were recorded. Annual leave, sick leave, and compensatory time use were accurately recorded and deducted from the City’s Payroll Management System (PMS), overtime and compensatory time were properly approved, and annual and sick leave were properly accrued based on employees’ length of service. In addition, the payroll process was adequately segregated and undistributed paychecks were carefully controlled to insure that they were not misappropriated.

Regarding Other Than Personal Service (OTPS) expenditures, we found that the items purchased were necessary for District Attorney’s Office operations. Sampled voucher line amounts and corresponding purchase orders were properly approved, and the amounts paid to vendors were accurately calculated. In addition, appropriate documentation to support each payment was maintained for the sampled vouchers.

However, the District Attorney’s Office had instances of noncompliance with regards to personnel, timekeeping, purchasing, and inventory guidelines that need to be addressed. Specifically, the annual salaries of 178 of the 534 District Attorney’s Office non-Assistant District Attorney (ADA) employees were not within the salary range of their Career and Salary Plan titles, employees were allowed to leave work early the day before major holidays and the Friday before holiday weekends without charging their accrued leave time, and five employees from our 55 sampled non-ADA employees had more than five instances of undocumented sick leave within a “sick leave” period, but were not placed on sick leave restriction.

In addition, we determined that personnel files lacked required documents; documentation for one managerial lump sum payment was not submitted to the Comptroller’s Office for review as required by Comptroller’s Directive #14; and there is no evidence that the District Attorney’s Office internally audits its payroll process.

Further, the District Attorney’s Office does not have written policies and procedures for purchasing and payments; improperly used miscellaneous vouchers; failed to issue purchase orders; and used incorrect object codes for 18 of the 80 payments we sampled. Lastly, the District Attorney’s Office did not maintain complete and accurate inventory records for all its equipment.

Audit Recommendations

Based on our findings, we make 11 recommendations, including the following:

District Attorney Officials should:

• Institute as a regular practice the review of salaries and their respective maximum salary levels under their titles when granting pay increases; it should transfer employees whose salaries are not within the ranges of their titles into other titles for which they qualify and that have job levels that encompass their current pay levels, or should appropriately adjust their salaries.

• Cease its practice of allowing employees early departure before holidays without charging their leave balances.

• Require that its employees provide medical documentation for sick leave used, in accordance with its office policies. Employees should be placed on sick leave restriction after five or more instances of undocumented sick leave within a “sick leave period.”
• Ensure that all required forms are received and retained in the employees’ personnel files.
• Comply with Comptroller’s Directive #14 and submit all non-ADA managerial lump sum payments to the Comptroller’s Bureau of Audit for pre-audit.
• Ensure that the payroll process is independently audited in accordance with Comptroller’s Directive #13.
• Comply with Comptroller’s Directive #24 and use miscellaneous vouchers only when applicable.