An independent audit of Saskatoon's city employment processes found liabilities in the way it pays employees and manages purchasing cards.
Presenting to the city's finance committee Wednesday, Saskatoon city auditor Sohail Saleem said the audit found no instances of fraud or incorrect payments, but did find other issues.
In some cases, purchasing cards (also known as p-cards) were not deactivated for as long as 70 days after an employee departed.
While none used their cards, the audit report noted one seasonal employee no longer with the city and another on extended leave could still use their cards after their employment stopped.
The auditor report also said some employees had used their purchasing cards to split business transactions and get around their limits, which range from $1,000 to $25,000. Of 1,260 transactions, 10 were split
transactions that added up to $92,231.
The audit found supervisors failed to notice the split payments.
Issues with vacation and time sheet processes
The report was the Independent Office of the City Auditor's first Continuance Assurance audit, and searched for issues like payroll errors, fraud and non-compliance.
When asked by a city councilor, Saleem said the city did not have a vacation policy and process, meaning there is no limit to the amount of vacation they can stack or carry-over.
The report said managers are also not properly watching employees' vacation balances.
Of the 129 employees with large vacation balances, 121 had between two and four months of banked vacation time and eight people had between four and eight months of vacation available.
From January 2021 to May 2023, about four in five time sheets were not submitted by hourly employees, and of those 37 per cent were not approved by management.
City administration was asked to strengthen management processes for time sheets, p-cards and how the city controls network accounts for departed contractors and employees.
Among the recommendations was a suggestion that the city implement a vacation policy and lay out a plan for those with a large amount of banked time.
Some of the details and recommendations about accounts for departed employees, and about buying and selling functions, were not shared publicly.
Saleem said city administration has agreed to all of the auditor's recommendations and is expected to provide updates to the his office.
The city is expected to implement the recommendations by the end of 2024.
