(The Center Square) – The Polk County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office paid out more than $123,000 in pay and benefits to employees who were credited with time that they did not work, according to an investigation from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office.
The investigation looked at the time frame from Jan. 1, 2018, to April 1, 2022 and found the clerk routinely gave workers one day off each week but still paid them for working those days.
The office also closed for one hour for lunch each day and that hour was also recorded as worked by employees.
Employees were found to have regularly worked 28 hours each week but were paid for working 40 hours per week using taxpayer funds.
Because of the falsified timesheets, employees worked less than the 32 hours a week required for full-time status but received full-time benefits including health insurance, retirement and time off.
The clerk’s office itself was only open 35 hours per week while employees reported 40-hour work weeks.
“Full-time employment status is required for the accrual of annual leave, sick leave, compensatory time, and an option for insurance coverage by the county,” the comptroller’s report said. “Furthermore, no part-time employees were listed on the letters of agreement between the clerk’s office and the Polk County Commission.”
All of that amounted to an estimated 2,852 hours paid that were not worked, worth more than $27,000, along with 192 hours of comp time that was not earned, worth nearly $2,000.
The largest benefit, however, was more than $93,000 worth of insurance benefits for employees that did not work enough to earn the benefit.
Employees also earned a total of 108.9 unearned service credits in the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System for time that was not actually worked.
The investigation also found a signature stamp for a Polk County judge was used without the judge’s permission twice on June 16, 2021, to sign a pair of expungement orders.
“The Polk County Circuit Court Clerk should also discontinue the use of signature stamps in the office,” Comptroller Jason Mumpower said. “A signature stamp of a Polk County judge was improperly used by the clerk’s office on two expungement orders. Internal controls over the use of signature stamps are inherently weak, and state law does not provide authority for their use.”
