Auditor: Botched West Virginia pay change costly, illegal

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - An auditor says West Virginia’s mishandled the switch to biweekly pay, which could cost tens of millions of dollars and give almost 25,000 state employees raises, is illegal.

In a letter presented to a legislative panel Sunday, Legislative Auditor Aaron Allred said the glitch from changing to the WV OASIS system would break state law, because employees would get a small amount of pay before their services were rendered.

Allred’s office says switching from semi-monthly to biweekly pay caused a $22.5 million liability in the state’s retirement program.

If the conversion is maintained, about 24,600 salaried employees would receive $47 million in raises over 10 years. About 23,600 hourly employees wouldn’t get raises.

Allred said officials told him a fix would be significant and costly, without citing a dollar figure.