Audit Report on the Kings County District Attorney’s Controls Over Its Personal Services Expenditures

Introduction

New York City’s five District Attorneys, including the Kings County District Attorney, are each public officers elected to terms of four years who are responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes, assisting victims, and implementing crime prevention strategies in their respective boroughs.

The Kings County District Attorney’s Office’s (KCDA’s) Fiscal Department oversees the KCDA’s Personal Services (PS) expenditures and the related payroll, timekeeping, and personnel functions, which are administered through the KCDA’s Payroll & Timekeeping Unit and Human Resources unit, respectively.

During Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 (July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019), the KCDA’s PS expenditures of $87.9 million represented 80 percent of the office’s total annual expenditures. For FY 2020, the KCDA’s PS expenditures amounted to $93.2 million, similarly representing 80 percent of the office’s annual expenditures that year.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Kings County District Attorney’s Office generally maintained adequate controls over many aspects of its Personal Services expenditures. Specifically, our review of 20 randomly selected employee personnel files found that they were maintained in accordance with applicable provisions of Comptroller’s Directive #13, Payroll Procedures, and the KCDA’s Employee Services Human Resources Standard Operating Procedures Handbook. We found that the KCDA had written justification and approvals on file for miscellaneous pay adjustments, which include employee recognition payments, retroactive one-time payments, and lump-sum assignment differential payments. We also found that the KCDA complied with the statutory requirements set forth in the NYC DCAS (Department of Citywide Administrative Services) Personnel Services Bulletin 200-8, for Section 211 Waiver applications. Additionally, we found payments made to Grand Jury Reporters for transcription of minutes to be generally accurate with supporting documentation and required signatures.  Further, we found that monthly timesheets for Assistant District Attorneys and KCDA employees with managerial titles generally had required signatures and approvals and were submitted to the KCDA’s Payroll department by the 10th of the following month in accordance with internal policies and procedures.

However, the audit also found that the KCDA did not comply with Article IV Section 7e of the Citywide Agreement, which pertains to a cap on the amount of overtime that can be paid to certain employees (the overtime cap). Specifically, we found that the KCDA improperly paid 41 ineligible employees for overtime totaling $224,092. In addition, we found two outdated sections of the KCDA’s policies related to time accountability for non-legal employees.

Audit Recommendations

Based on the audit findings we make the following three recommendations.

The KCDA should:

• Comply with regulations governing paying paid overtime to employees whose salaries exceed the overtime cap. In that regard, Kings County District Attorney officials should either obtain appropriate waivers or credit employees with compensatory time rather than paid overtime.
• Ensure that overtime payments are made in accordance with applicable agreements, laws, and regulations.
• Review and update outdated policies and procedures in the KCDA Policies and Rules of Conduct and related documents to ensure they are accurate and comply with governing regulations and to reflect practices to be followed in line with management objectives.

Agency Response

In its response, the KCDA stated, “We take seriously our obligations to ensure judicious use of public resources and are committed to working with the Comptroller to ensure those obligations are met.” The KCDA further stated that it had reviewed our recommendations regarding overtime payment and was “exploring all available options as it continued to move towards compliance.” With regard to our recommendation to review and update outdated policies and procedures, the KCDA stated that it was updating its Policies and Procedures Manual with the expectation of the Manual being compliant with current regulations and practices by January 2022.