Wayne County officials describe $1.6 million payroll overpayment, say most funds recovered; safeguards planned

Wayne County finance staff told commissioners they discovered an accidental $1.6 million direct-deposit overpayment to an employee, recovered all but $655 and have started disciplinary action and system changes to prevent similar incidents.

County staff said the error occurred during a manual pay-rate adjustment when an employee ID was entered in a field intended for a pay rate. “We were able to recoup all but $655 of the 1,600,000.0,” a county finance staff member, identified in the meeting transcript as Wallace, said. He said recovered amounts were returned via cashier's checks and the county arranged salary deductions for the remaining balance where applicable.

Commissioners asked how the county would detect smaller, less obvious errors. Commissioner Beydoun asked whether the county would audit past payrolls and how far back the review would go. Wallace said the county has already contracted a vendor to do a full payroll review tied to a broader payroll transformation and that staff performed an initial cursory review to look for other large anomalies.

Commissioner Anderson pressed for details about how the money was returned. “My understanding was the employee voluntarily brought it to your attention,” Anderson said. Wallace confirmed the employee notified the county and returned funds, presenting several cashier's checks that were deposited back into Wayne County accounts.

County officials said they are taking multiple steps to reduce risk: working with the system implementer to reduce the number of editable fields in pay-rate adjustments, reviewing manual payroll workflows to add approvals and alerts, setting thresholds that would trigger review by budget or human-resources leadership, and enforcing payroll cutoff deadlines so PHR staff have time to review unusual changes.

Officials acknowledged smaller overpayments and underpayments occur regularly and are dealt with under collective bargaining agreement (CBA) provisions that permit payroll reclaim procedures. A county attorney and human-resources staff said disciplinary outcomes for the employees involved are still being processed; the transcript records that four employees were implicated and that two have been separated pending due process.

Commissioners requested an updated implementation report with timelines for system fixes and training. Wallace said a status report will be forthcoming that details the implementation timeline and related safeguards.