The state of Connecticut overpaid hundreds of college employees using taxpayer money, and now they're asking for it back.
During a Connecticut State Colleges & Universities Board of Regents Faculty Advisory Committee meeting on Friday, a member, who is also a Gateway Community College professor, revealed that a review of payments from 2022 found a calculation error led to some Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSC) employees getting overpaid.
"We're talking about a couple of hundred folks and the amounts range up to $4,500 so people are about to be asked to repay to the system thousands of dollars that they were overpaid a couple years ago that they just identified," Colena Sesanker said.
A CSCU spokesperson said employees were notified earlier this month. The error was found during a review of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, or SEBAC, on Dec. 3.
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A calculation error was discovered, which may have led to the overpayment of a "significant number" of employees, the spokesperson said.
The school system is now conducting an audit to figure out how many employees were overpaid.
Officials said they will be letting those employees known how much they were overpaid and how to repay it.
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"To ensure accuracy and transparency moving forward, CSCU has engaged an external auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive review of payroll transactions spanning the past four years. The audit is expected to conclude in early 2025. Once complete, we will notify any affected employees in writing and work closely with them to address the situation. To help ease any potential financial burden, we are committed to offering flexible repayment options," a CSCU spokesperson said in a statement.
Others on the Board of Regents faculty advisory board said they know this affected a lot of people at the Manchester campus.
“It seems too there’s a pattern of folks or part-time EAs at the time, it seems to have impacted them the most and now they’re full-time,” Catherine Carter, of the state Community College Manchester, said.
“Around that time, there were also a large number of us who were underpaid,” she added, but no memo was sent when that happened.
Video of the meeting is posted online.
At the request of the governor, Comptroller Sean Scanlon looked at CSCU’s finances.
They specifically looked at inappropriate spending, inadequate reporting and misuse of state property.
“At the request of Governor Lamont, this audit was conducted in an effort to bring greater accountability and transparency to spending within the CSCU system—both of which the students and taxpayers of our state deserve,” Scanlon said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this audit revealed troubling gaps in oversight and questionable spending practices. Our recommendations provide a clear path forward with more comprehensive policies, consistent enforcement, and greater overall accountability.”
He said the full report notes instances in which Procurement Cards, or P-Cards, were used improperly for expenses such as tickets for non-university business, purchases without properly state sales tax properly removed and missing travel authorizations or receipts.
The comptroller said P-Card usage included splitting payments to bypass spending limits, using the P-Card for prohibited purchases (such as gas and automotive detailing), and excessive spending on meals and car services.
He is making some recommendations to CSCU:
- Reinstitute the internal audit function.
- Establish a centralized, system-wide P-card policy.
- Use university foundation funds for meals and entertainment.
- Set limits and review procedures for executive P-card use.
- Establish a centralized, system-wide vehicle use policy.
- Institute residency requirement for executives.
- Add CSCU to OpenConnecticut.
- Create uniform training for business functions and policies.
- Submit transactions for post-audit by OSC.
- Enforce accountability measures for misuse of P-Cards.
