Illinois DCFS official improperly approved $1.4 million in extra pay for employees, inspector general says
The top human resources official at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services approved $1.4 million in extra pay for employees that state rules did not allow, including nearly $52,000 for herself, according to a newly released investigation from the state Office of the Executive Inspector General. The official, Kimberly Bates, resigned after the investigation. In a phone interview Monday, she said she had simply continued a practice that existed at the department before she was hired, and that the payments were not hidden. Bates, then deputy director of the department’s Office of Employee Services, received some of the extra pay while she was on leave, the report said. Bates said that was a period when she was recovering from “brain surgery.” She has also filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against DCFS, she said. About 30% of the…
