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Miami-Dade officials outline fixes after 2023 payroll errors; regular reviews planned
Summary
County officials told the Appropriations Committee that an internal audit of payroll errors discovered in August 2023 identified about 40 issues; most have been addressed and the administration committed to six‑month progress reports and a comprehensive follow-up audit with the clerk's office.
Chief Carla Denise Armbruster Edwards, who oversees administration for the mayor's office, told the county Appropriations Committee that payroll errors discovered in August 2023 affected a wide range of employees, including commissioners and the clerk, and were the result of both system and human errors.
Edwards said the county's PeopleSoft human capital management (HCM) module had not been fully implemented and some auditing functions were not operating, and that an internal audit finalized in November 2023 identified about 40 issues. "We created a stoplight report to track the 40 issues that were identified in the audit. And today, 39, if I stand corrected, my team will help, of those things have been resolved," Edwards said.
The administration described three main categories of fixes already completed: tightened security access controls, newly documented standard operating procedures and staff training, and system triggers/exception reports to surface errors earlier. Edwards said some changes remain in progress, in particular changing the payroll process from prospective to retrospective pay periods and completing system updates to PeopleSoft.
Ofelia Tamayo, director of the county's internal compliance department, told commissioners the audit sampled 265,000 payroll transactions and that, when the data were pulled, more than 4,000 employees had identified overpayments totaling about $3.2 million. "That is everybody in the county at that time," Tamayo said.
Barbara Galvez of the clerk and controller's office said the clerk's office continues to monitor payroll and has scheduled meetings with county administration and Oracle, the system vendor, to identify infrastructure changes and possible schedule shifts that would let staff correct errors before checks issue. Galvez said the clerk is also building audit capacity and that hiring qualified staff has been a challenge.
Committee members pressed for timelines and additional oversight. Edwards said she has asked for a comprehensive audit involving the clerk's office and committed to receiving a status report every six months: "We can commit to making sure that we have something in place within the next 6 months." She also warned that updating the ERP and related vendor contracts could carry additional costs and asked the commission to expect future requests tied to licensing or implementation.
Commissioner Joe A. Gonzales and others urged continued outreach to unions, noting pay-cycle changes would require labor buy-in. Gonzales said the problem affects all employees, not only commissioners, and urged the administration to ensure no employee bears undue hardship from repayments. "You don't play with people's money," Gonzales said.
The committee did not adopt new policy in the hearing; officials said follow-up audits and operational changes are underway and that the county will return with further details and cost implications as projects progress.
