TRENTON – Senator Barbara Buono today called for a state probe of overtime spending after a published report revealed that a payroll supervisor at the Juvenile Justice Commission secured more than $425,000 for herself in unapproved overtime.
“Taxpayers are justifiably at the brink of revolt against this type of unchecked spending of their money,” Senator Buono wrote in a letter to State Auditor Richard L. Fair requesting that he conduct an immediate probe of the overtime practices at the JJC and the Departments of Corrections and Human Services.
Gannett New Jersey reported this weekend that Kimberly Gerald was found to have ignored overtime procedures and given herself $428,000 in overtime over 10 years without scrutiny from supervisors.
Senator Buono, Chairman of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee, asked Fair to determine if the situation at the JJC was part of a systemic problem there and at Corrections and Human Services and whether he could offer remedies prior to the budget hearings later this this Spring.
“There should be some accounting made here to see how such a prolonged lack of oversight endured at taxpayers’ expense,” Senator Buono said. “The question also to be answered is whether this laxity toward overtime is pervasive in other key departments such as Corrections and Human Services.”