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Audit: DOT gave staffers $39M in improper raises

The state Department of Transportation wrongly handed out $39 million in raises to hundreds of its employees under a program lawmakers approved two years ago, according to a state audit released Wednesday.

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NC Department of Transportation building, DOT sign, DOT building
By
Matthew Burns
, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor
RALEIGH, N.C. — The state Department of Transportation wrongly handed out $39 million in raises to hundreds of its employees under a program lawmakers approved two years ago, according to a state audit released Wednesday.

Secretary of Transportation Eric Boyette blasted the findings, saying the audit "erroneously interprets this law," prompting State Auditor Beth Wood to fire back that DOT management was trying to mislead people.

"[The Office of State Auditor] did not interpret the law. OSA reported the intent of the law as it was stated to auditors by members of the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee and the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division," Wood wrote in the audit report.

Lawmakers approved a program to help DOT keep valuable employees from moving to the private sector by giving them raises over what's allowed under the state salary schedule, provided that they give up their rights to an annual longevity bonus and their appeal rights under career-status state employees, according to the audit.

The generous raises were to amount to no more than 2 percent of the agency's annual payroll, or about $19.6 million, the audit determined. Instead, DOT handed out $58.5 million in raises to nearly 7,400 staffers. More than 5,400 of the workers got raises of at least 10 percent, and about 200 workers had active disciplinary actions against them when they were given the supplemental raises, according to the audit.

DOT also didn't require any of those receiving raises to give up their longevity pay or career-status rights, the audit found. Ninety-three percent of them were still considered career-status workers, and more than 4,700 also received $8.3 million in longevity pay.

"The department also demonstrated to all other state agencies that noncompliance with state laws, whether intentionally or through lack of appropriate due diligence, has no consequences for the agency or management," the audit states.

Boyette insisted that DOT was allowed to spend 2 percent of its total budget on the raises.

"Adjustments to salaries that amount to two percent of the department's payroll expenses could have been accomplished via salary adjustments within the existing compensation structure and without specific statutory authorization," he wrote in his response to the audit. "But such adjustments would have been insufficient to accomplish the market-based recruitment and retention goals of the pilot program."

Wood also attacked DOT spending in a separate audit earlier this year, finding that the agency went over its 2019 budget by 13 percent because of bad forecasting and lax oversight.
She isn't the only North Carolina official to take the agency to task, either. State Treasurer Dale Folwell last fall accused DOT management of misleading him regarding its finances and called for the firing of then-Secretary of Transportation Jim Trogdon.
Lawmakers have twice had to bail out DOT in the last year because of a cash crunch that forced it to delay projects and lay off contractors.

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