State audit again notes UI overpayments

IOWA CITY - An annual state audit noted for the third year in a row that the University of Iowa incorrectly made overpayments to employees.

University spokesman Tom Moore said the UI has implemented corrections to reduce the number of overpayments, and he said that since the state audits lag by more than one year, some corrective changes are not in place in time for the next audit.

The report by the state auditor's office, released last week, covers the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012.

It shows the UI incorrectly made 309 payroll overpayments totaling $805,095 during the 2011-2012 year. That's compared to 2010-11, when the university made 338 payroll overpayments to employees totaling $645,741.

Most of the salary overpayments are promptly collected, Moore said. The amount that remains uncollected is about 5 percent of the total overpayment for the year, according to the report.

The university reduced overpayments by about 60 percent for 2012-13, with 121 reported overpayments in that Fiscal Year, not including the July 1 payroll, officials said.

"The university will remain diligent and continue implementing process improvements to further reduce overpayments and to promptly collect ones that are made," according to the university's response in the auditor's report.

Overpayments generally occur when electronic forms reflecting changes in employment status are not submitted by the employing department on a timely basis, according to the report. When payroll cutoff dates are a week in advance of the month's end, overpayments and underpayments are unavoidable given the many factors affecting the UI's full-time and part-time employees, Moore said.

Among the steps UI officials have taken to address the issue is the development of an overpayment case management system, made available on campus in February 2013, and designed to make administrators more accountable for overpayments, identify overpayment trends and develop additional prevention measures.