San Diego Government Jobs, Others Criticized on Finances

Those with San Diego government jobs (http://sandiego.jobing.com/jobs/government) and other state positions are being criticized for their lack of financial responsibility.

The California State Controller's Office recently released several audits showing that there are a number of state agencies that failed to collect salary and travel advances from employees. That led Gov. Jerry Brown to order all state departments to recover taxpayer money and improve their internal accounting practices.

Current state law allows state agencies to advance an employee's salary when checks are delayed, an employee travels, a hardship request is made, a vendor requires immediate payment, or an employee quits and needs their final check.

One audit from 2009 found that most state agencies either took too long to collect salary advances or failed to collect them at all. In particular, 11 agencies failed to collect a total of $13.3 million in advances, including $500,000 that had been outstanding for three years.

However, Brown is now requiring all state agencies to clear salary and travel expense advances within 30 days, after which time the agency will be required to deduct the advance from the employee's next paycheck. In addition, agencies are being asked to improve their record keeping, oversight, training, and collection practices.

"It's shocking that the state has apparently failed to collect millions of dollars in salary and travel advances owed by state employees," Brown said in a statement. "This situation reinforces the worst stereotype of ineffective and inefficient government, and I have ordered state agencies to immediately investigate the backlog of uncollected debts and find every penny owed to taxpayers. State agencies must regain control of this program."

And the audits aren't over yet, as Controller John Chiang plans to continue examining the practices in place at many other state agencies. Those future audits could result in millions of other dollars that have yet to be collected.

"The state's poor debt collection and accounting practices are fleecing public coffers at a time when vital public programs are being decimated by unprecedented budget cuts," Chiang said. "I applaud Governor Brown's commitment to making every dollar count."

Only San Diego Government Jobs See Yearly Increase

Although the area's unemployment rate decreased and more jobs were added over the month, only San Diego government jobs saw a yearly increase in employment.

During November, the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area saw its unemployment rate decrease from 10.5 percent to 10.3 percent, following an increase from 10.4 percent during October. Despite that decrease, the area's current rate is still slightly higher than the national unemployment rate of 10 percent.

The San Diego area had a total non-farm employment of 1,251,000 workers during November, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 1,246,500 workers during October, but a 3.3 percent decrease from last year.

Four industries saw a monthly increase in employment, including: trade, transportation and utilities by 3,400 jobs; professional and business services by 800 jobs; education and health services by 500 jobs; and government by 1,200 jobs. Employment in the mining and logging and information industries remained even at 300 workers and 37,300, respectively.

The government industry was the only one that managed to add jobs when compared to last year. The industry employed 227,900 workers during November, up from 226,700 workers during October and a .1 percent increase from last year.

Employment in the mining and logging industry remained even when compared to last year, while employment in the education and health services remained even at 137,500 workers and employment in the other services industry remained even at 48,600 workers.

The construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year. The industry employed 65,200 workers during November, down from 65,500 workers during October and a 9.3 percent decrease from last year.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:

• manufacturing by 7.6 percent
• trade, transportation and utilities by 4.3 percent
• information by 4.8 percent
• financial activities by 2 percent
• professional and business services by 4.5 percent
• leisure and hospitality by 4.2 percent