Examples of misused state resources were among the 1,269 allegations of improper government activities investigated in 2022 by the California state auditor's office.
California state agencies spent nearly $280,000 on “inappropriate expenditures” last year, including the cost to keep the personal boat of a parks and recreation supervisor in a public dock and the wasted time of a sewage plant employee who shopped for comic books during work hours, according to a state audit report.
Among the biggest examples of misused funds and resources was an unnamed state agency that paid nearly $114,000 in public funds to a state analyst who was put on paid leave from March 2020 to November 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency and employee were unnamed for privacy.The audit found that the analyst could have completed her work via telecommuting, but the state agency said the equipment necessary to work remotely was too expensive.
At the Department of Industrial Relations, a supervisor whose job was to ensure that staff used only state vehicles for work was found to have been regularly using a state vehicle for his “almost-daily” commute to work for the last three years, costing the state nearly $11,000 according to the audit. The employee said he used his own vehicle only when the state-owned car wasn’t available, such as when it was receiving maintenance.
The department said it has taken steps to address the issues and billed the employee for $4,200, which was the smallest of three estimates of costs accrued. It also said GPS trackers will be installed on its vehicles. A psychiatric technician at the Department of State Hospitals was cited for nearly 400 hours of unaccountable absences from October 2018 to August 2021, costing about $12,500 in “productive time.” According to the report, the employee regularly arrived late, took extended lunch breaks and left early from work for about three years.
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