Metro’s inspector general discovered a “serious” weakness in the transit agency’s pay raise process when two of her own employees received overpayments.
A memorandum obtained through a public records request shows that two employees “received a lump sum overpayment of $3,000 each,” instead of having their 3 percent salary increase spread out over a year.
“We consider the above errors to be internal control weaknesses in [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] salary increase process that should have been detected and corrected,” Inspector General Helen Lew wrote in the Nov. 26, 2008, memo.
Lew said the two affected employees alerted her when they received abnormally large paychecks in the fall.
“They knew right away there was something wrong,” Lew told The Examiner. “We were concerned. We didn’t know the degree of the problem.”
It’s not clear how far the glitch extended within Metro’s 10,000-strong work force. Lew said she was told of two other cases since her memo.
Metro asked for an extension in fixing the problem, she said. Managers are expected to let her know in the next two months what controls they created to make sure salary increases were paid correctly.
Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said the transit agency has been installing a new payroll system in stages that gives supervisors reports on planned salary increases and employee positions.
Still, the concern may not be as much of an issue in coming months. Metro’s nonunion employees will not receive raises in the coming fiscal year that begins July 1 because of the current fiscal crunch, Taubenkibel said.
Union employees will receive step raises as stipulated by each union contract, as will employees who are promoted.
