Two transit workers fired for alleged timecard fraud

A Broward bus superintendent made timecard changes for a subordinate, giving him more than three weeks of extra pay over a two-year period, officials said. Both were fired Wednesday.

While a county auditor’s report in December substantiated allegations in an anonymous complaint against the two, the county waited to take action until it did its own human resources investigation.

The county fired Transit Superintendent Jeffrey Scott and bus traffic controller Clifford Combs. Human Resources Director David Kahn said a review of Combs’s timecards with changes made by Scott showed more than 120 hours of unaccounted time. That’s roughly $4,000 in extra pay.

Kahn said the county is not seeking criminal charges and would not try to get the money back.

Scott and Combs did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday. They have 10 business days to challenge their terminations, Kahn said.

A third employee mentioned by auditors, bus controller Nathaniel Sweeting, received a “letter of performance expectations.” Kahn said Sweeting had not followed the proper policy for checking in, but officials could account for his presence at all the times indicated on his timecards.

In the December report, County Auditor Bob Melton documented 19 occasions in a three-month period where Scott both signed in and signed out for employees without any other evidence that the workers were on the job.

Kahn said his office did a deeper dive into the issue, using other means to see if Combs was at work when the timecards said he was. The office was able to find him working on some occasions when auditors didn’t.

The auditor’s report said Scott should have known he was violating county policy, since he had authored a memorandum to employees that “clearly states that unauthorized punches for these employees are a form of payroll fraud.”

Kahn said investigators found no other timecard wrongdoing involving Scott or his other subordinates.

Scott was promoted to transit superintendent in 2013 after nearly being fired the previous

year for sharing sexually explicit joke emails and videos. He also received a “last chance warning” that said he would be fired for any incidents of a similar nature or for showing poor judgement, poor coworker contact or poor communications. Scott, who received a $70,000 salary after being promoted in 2013, was making $93,359 annually.

Combs, hired as bus driver by the county in 2012, started working as a bus traffic controller in

2017. His salary was $67,465.

The county is reviewing timecard procedures and requiring supervisors and employees to approve their timecards, Kahn said. Managers also have to add a comment explaining the reason for any manual changes they make to a timecard, he said.

”This has shown us an issue and we are going to be more vigilant,” Kahn said.