After Being Overpaid $164K, CT DOC Employee To Spend Years Paying Back

CONNECTICUT — A state Department of Corrections employee is about a quarter of the way through repaying the nearly $164,000 in erroneous compensation they were given a couple of years ago, according to official documents.

In performing an analytical review of employee earnings, the department found that an employee who "opted for an annual $3,032 holiday compensatory time payment, erroneously received 54 bi-weekly payments totaling $163,729," an audit for the fiscal years ending June 2020 and 2021 said.

As of September, the employee had repaid the state $42,167, according to a letter sent by DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros to Republican Senate Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, and Senator John Kissel, R-Enfield.

To make up for the rest of the overpayments, the employee will continue to have $1,000 deducted from each paycheck until the end of May 2029, Quiros said.

"Thus far, no payments have been missed," he added.

In the letter, Quiros said that "as it specifically relates to overpayment, the Department of Correction makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of its payroll every pay period" but that "Unfortunately, overpayments and other errors do occasionally occur."

"Regardless of the cause, when an overpayment occurs and has been detected, the agency immediately initiates an investigation and reviews its systems, policies, and procedures to determine how and why the error was made and how its systems, policies, and procedures should be modified to prevent the error from occurring again," according to Quiros. "In the case in question, the agency's Payroll systems, policies, and procedures were reviewed in-depth and updated to hopefully prevent future occurrences, and staff involved were counseled and retrained."

Quiros further claimed, in part, that The DOC has "one of, if not the, most complex payrolls in state government."

"DOC, like all state agencies has experienced a large turnover in staff these past several years and historically Payroll Units experienced a higher than average turnover rate than other Fiscal units given that the position of Payroll Clerk is an entry-level position in state service and given the tedious and stressful nature of the work," he added. "The learning curve is long and steep and unfortunately, many Payroll Clerks move on to other promotional opportunities throughout state service within a couple of years of hire."