Just in: City Auditor Jim Stith on the $35K overpayment

Minutes ago, we received the following guest blog from Jim Stith:

There have been many comments and questions raised over the issue of the recent news story about the overpayment of City personnel. There are several inaccuracies related to this story which I would like to clear up.

First, at this time no current employee owes any money to the City. Anyone who claims money is still owed either misunderstands or is misrepresenting the situation.

Second, the check which is being discussed was requested and issued before I was sworn in as Auditor.

Third. it has been asked why it took so long to find the problem. My office discovered a problem the City's time banks later in 2008 and began a detailed investigation of all payments from employees’ time banks back to the year 2000. This was a monumental task that took time to complete. This uncovered several inaccuracies which were then corrected. This was then reviewed by the State Auditors in the 2007 Audit. This matter was discussed and posted several weeks ago on the "What's New" page on www.NorwoodAuditor.com.

Fourth, I have requested that the State Auditors closely review this issue as part of the 2008 audit. They have been researching this for several weeks and will publish the findings in our 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

I hope this clears up any confusion over the matter.

Jim Stith, Auditor