California state workers were teleworking from Idaho, Tennessee and Alabama, audit finds
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Set us as preferred The State Controller’s Office violated teleworking and salary overpayment laws, according to a new audit, providing fresh fodder for critics of Controller Malia Cohen, who is running for a second term in the Nov.3 election.Two employees at the controller’s office teleworked from Idaho, Tennessee and Alabama in violation of state law, the audit found.
The findings included in a report by the State Auditor’s Office published last week detail cases of waste, inefficiency, misuse of state resources, contracting violations and “other improper governmental activities” across various state agencies investigated within a yearlong period.Two unnamed employees with “staff services manager” titles at the controller’s office were found to have been living out of state, despite the state’s human resources department issuing a notice in early 2022 that employees’ requests to regularly telework from outside of California would not be approved.One employee had been working and living in Idaho since late 2020 without disclosing that information to the agency, according to IP address records examined by the state auditor.
The audit also reviewed public records showing the employee owned property in Idaho and was the holder of an Idaho-issued driver’s license.“When we interviewed Manager A, he admitted to working from Idaho ‘just about every day’ for about five years,” the audit said.Some teleworking is allowed, but employees must be working in a location from which they are able to easily return to their assigned work location within normal commute time, the audit said.
And the telework policy is only available to employees who actively reside in California.In telework plans signed over several years, the employee submitted a California address, which he explained later had belonged to a famil...