Yolo County Grand Jury releases final report

Department of Employment and Social Services had 'inefficiencies' in timekeeping
By KATHERINE JARVIS / Daily Democrat
Created: 07/02/2011 12:30:48 AM PDT

The Yolo County Grand Jury released a much less scathing report of the county's Department of Employment and Social Services than last year.
In this year's report, released Thursday afternoon, the grand jury investigated the department's timekeeping and management hiring processes.

Last year, the grand jury report cited instances of favoritism, staff conducting personal business during work hours and improper logging of hours worked.

In this year's report on the department, the grand jury addressed unresolved concerns from last year regarding allegations of timekeeping and hiring irregularities.

"The grand jury found no misuse of timekeeping; however, the grand jury did find inefficiencies and inadequacies in the area of employee timekeeping," the report said.

Employees complete an absence request form and time sheet only when requesting leave and are presumed to have worked a regular 40-hour week if one is not submitted, the report stated. This is called "by exception" time reporting.

While a new system will electronically track absences, the grand jury wrote "it has the same potential for fraud." The report also said it was an electronic version of "by exception" reporting.

However, the report did say Information Technology is working on an application that would have employees put in arrival and departure times.

The department's management timekeeping was also investigated and "no misrepresentation of timekeeping was found," the report

The grand jury recommends the county implement a standard employee time and attendance policy, saying it "will alleviate the potential for fraud and will ensure an adequate audit trail exists."

In regards to management hiring, the grand jury verified that all management employees met minimum qualifications.

The report on the Department of Social Services was released as part of the final Yolo County Grand Jury 2010-11 report in addition to a report on Yolo High School in West Sacramento.

The continuation high school did not have a school site council as required when the initial state application for funding was submitted, the report said. The school was allowed to properly form a site council and resubmit the application.

Previous reports had been released starting in April. The whole document can be viewed online at yolocounty.org/index.aspx?page=780.