More timecard shell games

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.....A friend sent me an article in today’s LA Times regarding fraud in various areas of government in LA County: L.A. County auditors find widespread fraud. According to the article,

Los Angeles County auditors substantiated 101 instances of fraud during the last six months of 2009, uncovering cases large and small in which taxpayers were cheated, according to a report released Wednesday. ¶ The latest report was unusual because it found misconduct that touched the highest levels of the Fire Department and the office of the county's chief executive, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud.

.....In some instances, employees were viewing internet pornography—a problem that has arisen on several occasions here at Irvine Valley College.
.....But there were more serious findings—for instance, that “Three senior Fire Department managers played golf during county work hours but claimed a full day on their timecards, according to investigators. One of the employees also recorded overtime for that day, the report said.”
.....As in the case of John Williams, in this case, officials provided a dust storm of odd explanations and excuses:

.....Two of the employees were not disciplined because at the time, Fire Department rules allowed them to report they had worked full shifts if they worked at least one hour, a practice that has since been changed.
.....Fire Chief Michael Freeman said all employees involved had worked extra hours on other days, and he disputed the auditors' findings….

.....As you know, recently, we reported that trustee John Williams turned in timesheets to the county (re his job as OC Public Administrator and Public Guardian) that indicated that he had worked on days when in fact he was junketeering (often, in Florida) as a college trustee. This was explained essentially as an unavoidable artifact of the alleged complexity of Williams’ position as both an elected official and an appointed official.
.....We are in possession of further records and will be reporting about them in future.