The audit found the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spent more than 360-thousand dollars on a 35-month investigation of a psychiatrist. It found an employee at Kern Valley State Prison who took 2-hour lunch breaks was paid more than 23-thousand dollars for them.
But Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog says the benefits of this audit are greater than the financial savings it might bring.
"It sends a signal that any type of abuse of public office and the benefits that come with it could be found pretty easily and the perpetrator could be caught so I think this really has a tremendous deterrent effect more than just the money that's been identified here."
The state auditor investigated more than 400 complaints filed
between January and June of last year. Investigations that
produce evidence of wrong doing are handed over to the departments
in which the offense might have occurred for corrective
action.