Mayor Elaine Pluta praised the MUNIS accounting software for making more efficient the assessment of municipal payroll, budgets and leave such as vacation and sick days.
HOLYOKE – The city is halting unauthorized receipt of paid personal, vacation and sick days by part-time municipal workers.
The crackdown is thanks to the results of the MUNIS accounting software established in recent years that helps track each employee and the time off that each category of employee is permitted, a press release from Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said.
The changes also show the city is working to heed recommendations to improve employee attendance and benefit information made in January by the state Inspector General and in 2007 by the Department of Revenue, the press release said.
City Solicitor Lisa A. Ball said in an interview Monday the crackdown affected 20 to 25 employees at the Holyoke Public Library, the Board of Assessors, the Council on Aging and other offices.
The review is ongoing, so more employees might be affected, she said.
It was unclear how much money the incorrect usage of time off for part-timers and nonunion employees has cost the city because the mistakes have gone on at least 20 years, she said.
“The mayor is committed to the city’s ordinances being properly followed and that tax dollars are not spent needlessly,” Ball said.
MUNIS is a division of Tyler Technologies of Falmouth, Maine.
Officials here and in other municipalities consider MUNIS a system that streamlines handling of payroll, departmental budgets, grants, purchasing and bids, work orders, accounts payable, cash management and goals-planning.
In March 2010, Pluta appointed city paralegal Donna J. Dowdall the MUNIS administrator at a yearly salary of $55,400.
Nonunion employees got a memo July 29 that said the city would begin immediate enforcement of ordinances and policies related to leave for such workers, the Pluta press release said.
Part-timers will no longer get paid personal and legal holidays, which only full-timers are entitled to under ordinances, Ball said.
Part-timers get vacation and sick days, but only under certain formulas that up to now have been used incorrectly, she said.
Also, she said, part-time workers will no longer get paid sick leave because ordinances permit them only unpaid sick leave.
“Once employee leave balances are corrected, the proper totals will be entered into the city’s MUNIS software system. MUNIS will allow the city to ensure that all employee leave is properly accrued, expended, and paid, as applicable,” the press release said.