West Virginia officials don’t foresee any issues setting up state employee payroll in time for the long-delayed budget that starts July 1.
Department of Administration spokeswoman Diane Holley-Brown says the changes to the wvOASIS computer system should be ready in time.
Officials had expressed concerns that it may take a couple weeks to input changes into the system after a budget was approved.
Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed the new budget Friday. The GOP-led Legislature passed it last week during a 17-day special session.
Lawmakers couldn’t craft a budget during the 60-plus-day regular session earlier this year, when they found out revenues would be even worse because of the declining coal industry and low natural gas prices.
West Virginia State Auditor Glen Gainer will resign from his position earlier than expected.
Longtime State Auditor Glen Gainer announced Thursday he will be stepping down from his position on May 14 to take a job with a Virginia-based nonprofit group.
The 56-year-old had announced in December he would not seek re-election this year but planned to serve out the rest of his term, which would have ended in January 2017.
In a statement Thursday, Governor Tomblin thanked Gainer for his years of public service. Gainer has served as State Auditor since 1993.
In recent months, Gainer had taken heat from state lawmakers over the transition to a bi-weekly pay system for state employees. A legislative audit said the change would result in an extra paycheck for employees every 11 years.
Tomblin must appoint a replacement to finish-out Gainer’s term.
After a legislative audit showed a new pay system would cost the state tens of millions of dollars in unintentional pay raises, West Virginia lawmakers are assessing what — if anything — they can do to stop it.
The unintentional increase is the result of a computing error, dividing salaries by the new 26 pay period rather than the previous 24. Legislative Auditor Allred is now telling lawmakers he believes the conversion rate is illegal.
Allred recommends the state push back that date until lawmakers can reassess the code section dictating salaries during the next legislative session.
“If the state auditor wants to simply divide salaries by 26, which we believe is illegal, than he can come to the Legislature and ask for the Legislature’s approval to convert salaries the way that he’s planning on converting them,” he told the committee Sunday.
That second wave is the next group of state employees who will switch to the new biweekly pay system.
The first wave — which included agencies like the Department of Administration, the Auditor’s and Treasurer’s Offices and the Division of Highways — made the change earlier this year. Wave two, which will include the remainder of state employees, is scheduled for November 14.
Allred said he doesn’t know how much a delay will cost, but representatives of the executive branch have said the implementation will continue as scheduled. Lawmakers will likely not be able to intervene in the process until January’s session.
A legislative review of the state’s new employee pay schedule found the state will be paying an additional $50 million over the next ten years to salaried employees because of a computing error.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Legislative Auditor Aaron Allread before the Post Audits Subcommittee.
As West Virginia transitions to WV Oasis, a streamlined computer processing system that will be used by government agencies statewide, state employees are moving to a new pay schedule. Many agencies have already transitioned to the bi-weekly schedule, meaning instead of 24 paychecks per year, employees will receive 26.
But in the conversion process, Legislative Auditor Aaron Allred told the Post Audits Subcommittee some 24,000 salaried employees will actually receive an annual pay increase of between $200 and $400 because of a calculation error.
Over the next ten years, Allred said, the change will cost the state some $50 million in additional employee pay.
State Auditor Glen Gainer said by streamlining the payroll process, the state will see a larger savings than the money it will pay out from the computing error. The state’s consulting firm on the Oasis project estimates West Virginia agencies could save $4.5 million per year under the system.
“I believe those savings will be closer to $10 million per year,” Gainer to the committee Sunday.
Senate President Bill Cole, a member of the committee, was unhappy with the overpaying of employees, despite the savings predicted under the new system. Cole was adamant during the meeting about finding a way to pay employees their agreed to salaries under the new system.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Auditor Glen Gainer before the legislative Post Audits Subcommittee.
During the next few months, lawmakers will discuss their options on dealing with the pay schedule transitions. They could return to the 24-paycheck schedule, redefine the number of work days in a year in state code, or leave the system the same and pay the additional salaries, among other options.
The issue is expected to be taken up during the 2016 legislative session. Until then, Allred is recommending the state postpone the second wave of pay schedule changes which are planned for November.
A change in pay periods for state employees has prompted grievances from workers who say they won’t receive their full salaries during the switchover.
The state began switching pay periods in June from twice monthly to biweekly. Pay periods will increase from 24 to 26.
Gordon Simmons with the West Virginia Public Workers Union tells the Charleston-Gazette Mail that some employees discovered that they will receive 25 paychecks in the switchover year. Overall, he says the change could cost employees millions of dollars.
The grievances include one filed by David Harper Gardner Jr. and 23 other Department of Transportation employees. Gardner says he discovered that he’ll lose about $212.
State Auditor’s Office spokesman Justin Southern says it’s his understanding that no one will lose pay because of the change.
Lawmakers were updated today on the security measures the state is taking to protect employee information in the OASIS system.
WVOASIS stands for Our Advanced Solution with Integrated Systems. The computer software system is designed to integrate all functions of state government into one and has been rolled out in phases since 2013.
The system will eventually house all state personnel data, including payroll information and social security numbers, but at an October meeting OASIS project director Rick Pickens told lawmakers he wasn’t sure what security measures had been taken to protect that information.
Lawmakers were updated in a brief meeting Monday that all of the information has been encrypted and two major security tests have been performed.
Delegate Gary Howell, who will soon become the House Chairman for the Committee on Government Organization, has requested the West Virginia National Guard cyber security team also test the system for any weaknesses to prevent hackers from reaching the information.
Pickens expects that test to happen within the next few months.
