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Separation Payments Were Not Approved and Some Were Inaccurate or Unsupported We reviewed all separation payments made during our audit period, which included 21 employees totaling $230,717. Eleven of these payments were approved by an appropriate official; however, the remaining 10 payments totaling $105,051 did not have any supporting documentation or evidence to indicate whether the payments were reviewed or approved by an appropriate official. When we compared the leave records and recalculated the separation payments, we identified four payments totaling $11,282 that were inaccurate or lacked adequate support for the amount paid. Specifically: l One employee received a payment of $5,123 for unused sick leave; however, officials were unable to provide support, such as the employee’s leave record, demonstrating that the number of hours paid was correct. The Deputy Supervisor and all three Board members told us sick leave was donated to this employee which accounted for the remaining balance. However, they were unable to provide documentation supporting the amount of donated and/or used leave, and the contract provided no guidance. l One employee’s leave accrual records reported 37.5 hours of unused sick leave at the time of retirement, but the employee’s separation payment incorrectly included $3,558 for 37.5 sick days, or 300 hours. The Personnel Clerk was unaware of this discrepancy until we questioned the overpayment. Furthermore, the employee was not eligible to receive payment per the CBA because their sick leave balance was below the 20 days threshold to receive a payment for unused sick leave. l One employee was overpaid $1,776 for unused sick leave. The employee had 1,510 hours of sick leave remaining and we calculated the payment should have been $20,957; however, he was paid $22,733. The employee’s personnel file did not include supporting documentation for the calculation or amount paid, and because the payment was made before the Personnel Clerk was hired, she was unable to provide an explanation for the overpayment. l One employee was paid $825 for unused compensatory time, but there was no supporting documentation such as hours earned, hours used and remaining balances. The Personnel Clerk said that this payment was handled by the previous payroll clerk, and they were not able to locate additional support for it. The Personnel Clerk informed us that separation payments were paid through payroll and all calculations were based on the CBAs; however, the former payroll clerks did not prepare a voucher or other supporting documentation for these payments. The Deputy Supervisor, all three Board members and the Personnel Clerk told us that with multiple turnovers in the payroll clerk position (full-time and part-time) over the past six years, and a recent vacancy in the Town Supervisor position, some of the calculation methods, recordkeeping practices and approval processes have been inconsistent. Although the Personnel Clerk has since established a process to calculate the separation payments and properly retain supporting documentation, without Board-adopted policies and procedures providing guidelines for calculations and requiring an appropriate official review and approve calculations, Town officials cannot provide assurance separation payments are accurate. Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller 5