Audits find $200,000 in government waste and fraud

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Investigations have turned up more than $200,000 in waste and fraud involving state employees and facilities, including $70,105 paid to an inspector in the Department of Industrial Relations while she did private work during her state work hours, the state auditor reported Monday.

Auditor Elaine Howle notified the governor of 11 significant cases among the dozens investigated last year based on whistle-blower complaints.

‘Through our investigative methods, we found misuse of state time and resources, improper gifts and failure to report absences accurately,’ Howle wrote in the cover letter for the report.

The inspector used state time and a state car while teaching safety training courses for a state university and giving presentations for a professional association. The woman, who is not identified, was paid $264,000 for her outside activities, the auditor said.

Howle said the inspector’s managers failed to put in place controls to prevent the abuses.

Other findings:

-- A supervisor at Heman G. Stark Correctional Facility misused the time of two psychiatric technicians by assigning them to perform the tasks of a lower‑paid classification. This misuse of the employees’ time resulted in a loss to the state of $110,797.

-- For almost five years, an employee of California State University, Northridge improperly allowed a business owner and his three associates to use a university laboratory facility, equipment and supplies without compensating Northridge, resulting in a loss of compensation to the school of $20,790.

-- A supervisor in a Department of Water Resources field office received at least $1,840 in gifts from a vendor with which he contracted during the course of his duties as a state employee. ‘The circumstances indicated that the gifts were a reward for his doing business with the vendor; thus, the supervisor engaged in an activity incompatible with his duties or responsibilities as a state employee,’ the audit concluded.

The auditor’s report does not say whether the employees involved in the misconduct were fired or otherwise disciplined.

-- Patrick McGreevy