City Admits They Do Not Verify Contractor’s Payroll For Sewer Projects As Required by State Law.
By: Libi Uremovic| Original Article at Patch.com
ecause embezzling money from sewer plants is nothing new; State Law requires all agencies to obtain Certified Payroll Records for any and all Contractors involved in sewer and wastewater.
Certified Payroll Records were requested from the City of Beaumont for Urban Logic Consultants, Utility Partners, Wildermuth, Diversified Drilling, and Wildan.
The City’s response is:
“The City of Beaumont has some payroll records on various City projects for Urban Logic. There documents are not maintained in electronic format. The City has no payroll records for Wildermuth, Utility Partners, or Diversified Drilling.”
Not only did Beaumont Finance Director, William Aylward, neglect to establish separate funds to account for specific projects like Fire Stations and Roads, but he has never bother to check payroll records for Contractors as required by State Law.
Even if Aylward is too incompetent to properly maintain records, there’s only one reason why the Payroll Records were not acquired by the Contractor when the Records Request was submitted.
Can anyone guess what the one reason the City does not simply request payroll records from their sewer contractors?
If you guessed: “Because they’re isn’t any Payroll Records to back up the massive payouts.” You’re Correct!!
Contractors’ Obligations To Maintain and Furnish Records: Labor Code § 1776(a) requires each public works contractor and subcontractor to keep accurate payroll records, including the name, address, social security number, work classification, straight time and overtime hours worked each day and week, and the actual wages paid to each worker.
The “work classification” refers to the craft classification (or type of work performed) as fixed by the Director and specified by title on the prevailing wage determinations published and maintained by the OPRL. (Labor Code § 1773 and 8 CCR § 16203.)
Payroll records which do not identify the Director’s specified title (e.g., records which only identify a worker by status, such as “journeyman” or “apprentice” or “partner,” and do not refer to the Director’s published classification, such as “Laborer Group 1” or “Carpenter”) are inadequate.
Payroll records shall be on forms provided by the DLSE or in a manner containing the same information as the forms provided by the DLSE. The DLSE form (DIR Form A-1-131) is available on the DLSE website in the Public Works/prevailing wage section. The payroll records may consist of printouts that are maintained as computer records so long as the printouts contain the same information as the DLSE forms. The required certification language is also on the DLSE website.
3.1.1 Payroll Records Must be Certified: Labor Code § 1776(b) requires that payroll records, as defined above, shall be “certified,” that is, verified by written declaration made under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in the – 12 – June 2014 Division of Labor Standards Enforcement Public Works Manual records is true and correct. (8 CCR § 16000.) The certification language is found on the back of the form furnished by the DLSE. Payroll records furnished to DLSE which are not certified are inadequate.