Audit Finds Overpayments to Employees : Education: Examiners say at least 11 county workers overbilled for tuition reimbursements and other college expenses.

Ventura County auditors have discovered that at least 11 county employees “received questionable overpayments” for tuition and other college expenses reimbursed by educational programs, a report revealed Thursday.

“Sufficient controls and procedures were not established by the personnel department management to adequately protect the interest of the county,” Auditor-Controller Norman R. Hawkes wrote in a cover letter for the report.

Without identifying employees, the report said auditors found abuse among 11 of 31 employees surveyed who participated in the county’s career development program and the textbook and tuition program between March, 1990, and December, 1991.

County auditors are now expanding the audit to all 161 employees who have sought reimbursements from the county for graduate and undergraduate studies during those 22 months.

“When you have that much of a problem, you’ve got to extend it out to find what you’re faced with,” said Thomas O. Mahon, the county’s assistant auditor controller.

The survey uncovered examples of employees overbilling the county for education costs, withdrawing from classes and not refunding tuition cash to the county. In one case an employee received an advance payment of $3,000 in March, 1991, for courses that began the following month, but the employee never took the classes.

A copy of the report was circulated Thursday to county supervisors, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and county Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg.

The Ventura County grand jury also has launched an inquiry into whether county employees have misused public money earmarked for education, sources said. A representative of the district attorney declined to comment on the grand jury inquiry.

Although no one was named in the 13-page report, sources said county Personnel Director Ronald W. Komers was one of the employees reviewed by auditors. The county Personnel Department is in charge of administering the career development program, and Komers is enrolled in a doctorate program at the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara.

Komers said he did nothing wrong and has no plans to return county money used to underwrite his graduate work in psychology at the Fielding Institute, which charges $7,750 a year for tuition.

“My own participation in the program was fully within the program guidelines,” Komers said.

According to the school’s registrar, Komers enrolled in the program in 1988. The program could take several years to complete. At the Fielding Institute, studies are self-directed so that students do not have to take classes and can study at their own pace.

Komers, 47, who draws an annual salary of $89,724, said he no longer uses county dollars to cover his education bills. “I’m no longer receiving career development funds,” he said. “I’m currently funding my education out of my own pocket.”

The audit focused on the career development program, adopted by the supervisors in 1989. It pays $100 per unit for undergraduate courses and $300 per unit for graduate work.

A related program, the textbook and tuition reimbursement program, is supervised by the heads of the county’s 23 agencies and departments and provides managers with up to $3,000 a year for college expenses, and lesser amounts to other employees. A second audit is now reviewing this reimbursement program.

Although the career development program was designed to help lower-income county employees enhance their careers, the report said more money was being used for graduate studies by higher paid employees, including some managers.

Auditors selected a sample of 31 employees out of 161 participating in the program, the report said.

Of that sample, 11 employees received $47,250 of the $333,000 paid to underwrite education benefits in the career development program. Of that amount, the 11 employees “had received questionable overpayments amounting to $8,710,” the report said.

Also, three of the 11 employees received “an additional $3,431 of questionable overpayments from the textbook and tuition reimbursement program,” the report said.

Komers disputed some of the findings of the report, but defended the integrity of the program.

“There were a very small number of problems which we have corrected or are in the process of correcting,” he said. “The program has achieved its goals of facilitating the educational development of county employees.”