Senator Slom and SCA-01 members Wil Espero and Ron Kouchi.
The Senate Committee on Accountability (SCA-01) convened this month at 4 hearings so far to question several department heads of various state agencies salary and wage overpayments as well as high rates of additional compensation paid to employees.
Senator Donna Mercado Kim chairs the committee which includes Senators Wil Espero (vice-chair), Clayton Hee, Les Ihara, Ronald Kouchi and I.
The salary overpayment issue is outlined in Senate Concurrent Resolutions 34 and 37, both of which seeks an audit into salary and wage overpayments.
Department heads were questioned by committee members about overpayments. The committee found that the overpayment problem stemmed from poor record keeping with workers getting more than what they were due. Old paper based systems of record keeping were also to blame.
More than $2 million in overpayments to public employees are documented. A half a million of that amount may be unrecoverable. The state would like to recoup $1.5 million of the overpayments.
The problem goes as far back to at least 1994.
SCR 34 points out that the State Department of Public Safety which has up to 2,400 workers, 100 workers had excessive overtime payments between 2009 and 2010. The resolution also states that some employees boost their overtime hours through a practice known as “pension spiking” near the end of their careers.
