County Payroll Issues Surface
Employee Terminated; Commissioners Say No Fraud
by John Lipez
LOCK HAVEN – Clinton County is in the market for a new payroll-benefits administrator after the county commissioners last week terminated longtime county employee Susan Conway.
All three commissioners voted for the termination, saying little at the time.
But this week commissioners Pete Smeltz and Jeff Snyder offered more information into their action, Smeltz stating that when the commissioners were made aware of payroll errors in several areas, they moved to “launch an investigation.”
They made a point to emphasize there had been “no fraud” and no money had been misplaced.
The commissioners said they have called upon their outside auditing firm, Zelenkofske Axelrod LLC to go back over the payroll for the years 2011 through 2013.
Snyder said the cost of the investigation could go as high as $80,000 but the board is hopeful final costs will be less than half that amount. He said some 700 man-hours have already been spent in researching what the commissioners called “errors.”
The errors have been uncovered in several areas so far, including improper information on employees’ W-2 forms, retirement deductions and tax rates.
The commissioners indicated there were no large amounts of money involved in the individual W-2 miscues, ranging from $20 to as much as $400 or $500.
There could be issues, the commissioners said, with the Internal Revenue Service, but believe at this point too much had been paid to the IRS, rather than short-changing the federal agency.
Meanwhile the commissioners said another county employee is handling payroll matters while the county goes through the process of hiring a new payroll administrator.
Both Smeltz and Snyder said the issue has to be resolved and “checks and balances” will be instituted to prevent a repetition.
The Record has learned that Conway had previously worked in another county department and had been transferred to her payroll responsibilities by a previous administration.
