LINCOLN- A total of $28 million worth of overtime was paid out during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020.

That number does not include the $28 million and $23 million of overtime that the Department of Correctional Services and Health and Human Services, and Transportation racked up in the the two years prior.

The Nebraska Legislature’s Performance Audit Committee issued a report this week looking at overtime trends in the three agencies with the largest amount of overtime spending.

Overtime spending accounted for up to 10% of the agencies’ personnel budgets.

The Corrections Department, which operates nine prisons in five communities across Nebraska, relied the most heavily on overtime by a majority of the measures studied in the report.

HHS, the largest state agency, operates seven 24-hour facilities, including psychiatric hospitals, facilities for juvenile offenders and a center for people with developmental disabilities. Those facilities accounted for the bulk of the agency’s overtime spending.

Transportation employees, who plan, build and maintain state roads and bridges, accumulated overtime largely because of seasonal work demands, such as construction projects, snow removal and responding to weather-related damage to the state’s highway system.

For the full article click HERE