Hello Friends,
Thank you to all those who joined us for our Virtual Town Hall on Tuesday evening. It was great to see familiar faces amidst all the activity here at the legislature.
We discussed broad topics like our ICE response and touched on specific bills such as feline declawing. We also had questions about how you can track what’s happening at the legislature, and there are a couple of good ways:
We discussed my bill providing some relief to property taxpayers, which you can watch me present here. I’m proud that while I was Mayor, most Shakopee residents’ city property taxes went down. But today, federal cuts and state disinvestment in schools are leaving property taxpayers to feel the pinch. My bill is just one of many we’re working on this year to help folks afford their lives and stay in their homes.
|
|
We also discussed our ongoing work to fight and prevent fraud. Minnesotans…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.