Delaware’s State Auditor calls the state’s oversight system for dual employment fragmented, reliant on manual processes, and dependent on self-reporting.
It’s auditor Lydia York’s second report on state compliance with dual employment rules, which spans fiscal years 2023-2025. State law requires that the auditor’s office review state compliance annually.
“It's not technically new,” York said. “I think what's new, at least as people are perceiving it, is that we're trying to do it on a regularized basis.”
Her first report in 2024 found that state agencies do not keep complete records on dually employed individuals or time records and lack the policies and practices necessary to enforce the law.
It’s been illegal for the state to pay officials or employees for coincident hours – like work at a state university and the statehouse– for 40 years.
York’s second report released this month finds that issues identified in 2024 persist. And a lack of records and access meant her office, “was unable to fully assess whether State agencies and political subdivisions complied with the Law.”
York noted that the Public Integrity Commission, which implements financial disclosure laws, has made improvements since its last dual employment report in 2024, like modifications to its financial disclosure form for additional information.
But it still lacks a database for its employees who get two separate employment checks from the state. And it means challenges verifying information for the audit, and a more labor-intensive investigation.
“We basically have to go create a report,” she said. “And then we're relying on that report that we've had to create to validate the hours that people were working. So, we're having to build the report that we thought should already exist.”
It meant in the audit that it couldn’t reach a conclusion for dual employment compliance for two employees who reported employment at the Peace Court and Delaware Technical Community College, and one with the General Assembly and Appoquinimink School District.
The audit is meant to test if the state has a system in place that can consistently identify if someone employed in two different ways gets paid for overlapping hours, York said, “what we encountered was no–the state doesn't have a system that shows us that.”
Another instance of possible “double-dipping” is an elected or appointed official who also instructs at a state funded university. York said this type of employment is positive, but disagrees with the University of Delaware’s long-held position that it doesn't need to share personnel and payroll data with her office.
Her office argues that “second employers” are obliged to track possible overlaps in hours.
“Almost by definition, elected officials are not keeping a timecard, certainly not for their time in Leg Hall or their time on constituent matters,”York said. And her office’s interpretation is that second employers must track hours and scheduling, “to make sure that they're not being paid at the same time they're fulfilling their public responsibilities in another fashion.”
York says UD declined to share personnel information requested for this audit, limiting its ability to verify compliance with the state’s rules. UD maintains it doesn't qualify under the Dual Employment Law as a state agency and doesn’t have to share the information.
The audit identified 15 possible state employees who were employed by the University of Delaware and another capacity by the state, including eight General Assembly members.
But because the university declined to share information with her office for the audit, it, “was unable to determine whether the University complied with applicable dual employment requirements for these individuals during the audit period.”
But moving forward, UD will be required explicitly to share information with the auditors office– because of a house bill that passed in 2025 and will be in effect in time for the auditor’s next report.
