Continuous Controls Monitoring Program – Review of City Staff Absenteeism

The Auditor General’s Work Plan includes the development of a system of continuous controls monitoring for selected City expenses. The objective of the Continuous Controls Monitoring Program is to provide periodic reports to management which assist in proactively monitoring financial transactions, detecting unusual expenses and identifying areas where internal controls could be strengthened.

The Continuous Controls Monitoring Program was initiated in 2011. Initial expenses selected for the application of continuous controls monitoring were employee overtime and mileage reimbursements. In 2012, the program was expanded to include standby pay.

In January 2013, the Auditor General further expanded the Continuous Controls Monitoring Program to include staff absences. Our review includes staff absences resulting from sick time and bereavement.

This report includes the results of our analysis of staff absenteeism due to sickness and bereavement time for over 35,000 City employees during 2012. The purpose of our analysis is to review absentee trends and costs and provide management with exceptions warranting further review.

Table 1 provides 2012 staff absenteeism for the selected staff absentee types identified in our review.

TABLE 1: 2012 Staff Absenteeism for Selected Wage Types

*all amounts are estimated based on employee annual salaries

Staff absences have a direct impact on divisional productivity and staff costs. Additional staff costs result from employing replacement staff and staff overtime costs.

Staff absentee information will be provided to management on a periodic basis for comments and follow-up on unusual instances. The first such set of exceptions was provided to management in May 2013.