The Washington State Department of Transportation this week announced that an internal payroll audit has uncovered at least $67,000 in unearned overtime and compensation time charges by an employee over the past two years.

WSDOT continues its investigation and has referred the case to Washington State Patrol and Pierce County Prosecutors Office to investigate potential criminal charges.

"We work hard to be highly accountable in our use of taxpayer's dollars," said Steve Reinmuth, WSDOT's chief of staff. "We are disappointed in our employee's actions and have taken steps to ensure this kind of abuse won't happen again." The employee resigned in lieu of termination from state employment.

The employee later admitted that she adjusted her work time in the system over the last two years for hours which she never worked, collecting more than $67,000 in unearned state pay. The actual amount of loss to the state will be determined by the ongoing investigation.

The unearned overtime was flagged by agency management during a routine review of overtime accrual reports and an internal  review was launched immediately.

In March, the State Auditor's Office included a "management letter item" in WSDOT's regular audit indicating concern over unauthorized access to the state agency's payroll accounting system. The audit found that 71 people with no timekeeping responsibilities had access to enter and update hours.

In response, WSDOT instituted procedures for regularly reviewing access permissions. In addition, computer programmers are in the process of updating the system so that no person can enter or adjust payroll time for themselves in the payroll system.