Sep 2, 2007 4:08 pm US/Central
DISD Oversight Led To Improper Supplemental Pay
DALLAS (AP) ―
An understaffed payroll department could not properly monitor an $80 million supplemental pay system that allows employees of the Dallas school district to receive stipends and extra pay not included in the district's compensation plan, a newspaper investigation found.
Gaps in oversight of the extra pay have led to improper payments, such as a high school band director receiving over three years nearly $40,000 in extra pay to which he was not entitled. In 2006, a football coach received nearly $9,000 more than he was due.
More than 3,000 requests are made each month for extra pay. But the payroll department did not audit requests before having to pay them, according to a district report. In some cases, money was paid erroneously, according to district officials and a review of records by a North Texas newspaper.
Officials in the Dallas Independent School District acknowledge that the supplemental pay system has operated with little oversight. The mistakes and large amount of supplemental pay are the result of a "high volume of transactions, limited oversight, limited staff to properly monitor and audit such payments, and a culture of entitlement that demands anything outside of the normal job duties or schedules deserves extra compensation," according to the report.
"Really, nobody had a grasp on how many millions we're talking about," said Carlos Tapia, the district's executive director of compensation. "I knew that if we dug into it, we'd be surprised by what we'd find."
The school district has begun to change procedures to prevent overpayment. Late last year, the district adopted the policy of having its compensation department approve or reject most supplemental pay requests before they are paid.
Before the change, extra pay requests went to the payroll department, and no one checked whether the requests were permissible.
District officials are considering whether to implement other recommendations included in the school administrators report.
The district has not hired more payroll staff to search for waste or stopped paying stipends that aren't authorized by district policy.
"We think we have a handle on it," Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said.
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