A year before he was indicted on federal racketeering charges and killed himself, the West Virginia Division of Highways' former equipment director received a $10,056 payout for unused compensatory time, according to records released Thursday by the Legislative Auditor.
Bob Andrew, who headed the DOH equipment division for 16 years and last served as executive assistant to Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox, received the comp time buyout in 2014, while he was under investigation by state and federal authorities.
That year, DOH quietly paid $242,778 in comp time buyouts to nearly 100 agency employees, records show. The DOH employees - mostly agency executives - racked up 6,200 hours of comp time before cashing out.
"These buyouts were unnecessary and inappropriate," said Aaron Allred, the state's legislative auditor.
Other DOH executives who collected generous comp time payouts included: Greg Phillips, a highway district engineer, $10,678; Deputy Transportation Secretary Keith Chapman, $9,596; Assistant Deputy Secretary Marvin Murphy, $5,121; Robert Pennington, a highway engineer, $9,206; and former finance division chief James Hash, $8,257.
"These were people making $80,000, $90,000, $100,000 a year, and comp time was not required to be paid to them under federal law," Allred said. "It was an expenditure of state money not required under the law."
No other state agencies in West Virginia authorize comp time buyouts for employees, according to the state Auditor's Office.
At a legislative committee meeting Thursday, Mattox defended his decision to allow DOH employees to cash out their comp time.
"This money was due to those employees," the transportation secretary said. "Some of this comp time was earned back in the 1980s."
Workers accumulate comp time by working extra hours, and then typically use it to take days off at a later date.
Two years ago, DOH officials determined the buy-out practice was legal, after deciding to rescind a longtime policy that allowed highways executives and other employees to accumulate compensatory time.
Mattox said DOH scrapped the comp time program because the state's new payroll system, called KRONOS, could not track employee comp time.
Not so, according to auditors who cited a letter from the state payroll system administrator.
"The KRONOS application has been configured to allow for the earning and use of compensatory time," the payroll director wrote to auditors amid their review.
The State Auditor's Office, which is separate from the Legislative Auditor, added: "Any compensatory time buyouts were unnecessary and a discretionary decision made by the agency..."
Andrew, the former DOH executive who shot himself in the head just hours after being indicted on multiple corruption charges last fall, accumulated 240 comp time hours before abruptly resigning a year earlier. Andrew's comp time buyout was the second largest among DOH employees.
The 29-count indictment alleged Andrew used state workers and equipment to take part in political activities on state time, rigged bids for favored vendors and directed workers to violate laws that govern the selling off of surplus vehicles and equipment. Andrew also was charged with tampering with a witness and falsifying DOH documents.
In 2011, Andrew directed DOH workers to solicit and collect thousands of dollars in contributions for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's gubernatorial campaign on state time, the indictment alleges. Andrew also ordered DOH workers to hang Tomblin campaign banners on semi-truck trailers throughout West Virginia, federal prosecutors allege. Andrew had subordinates submit falsified documents so they'd be reimbursed by the state for their time hanging banners for Tomblin.
While being investigated, Andrew received a $7,500 salary hike and was promoted to a new job as executive assistant to Mattox in January 2014, payroll records show. Months later, he also collected his $10,056 comp time buyout.
The lump-sum payments to DOH employees can't be used to bolster their retirement packages, Mattox said.
Auditors learned about the DOH comp-time buyouts after receiving a tip from a retired state highways worker.
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.