Council member says Finance Department failed to upload payroll information; county working to get employees paid
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Beaufort County employees woke up Friday morning without their expected paychecks after an apparent error in the county’s Finance Department delayed payroll.
Beaufort County Public Information Officer Hannah Nichols confirmed the payroll problem to The Island News Friday afternoon.
“We have had a payroll delay, yes,” Nichols said.
Beaufort County Councilman Joe Passiment later confirmed that he was among those who did not receive a paycheck Friday, Aug. 21, and said the problem occurred when someone in the county’s Finance Department failed to upload payroll information needed to send payments to employees’ banks.
“Someone in the finance department failed to upload the payroll information that sends it out to all of the banks,” Passiment told The Island News.
Passiment said Friday afternoon that the county was working to upload the information and that he was hopeful employees could still receive their money before the end of the day.
“They’re uploading the information that should have been done earlier,” Passiment said, adding that the files would then have to make their way through the various banks before the money appeared in employees’ accounts.
Passiment said he had noticed something might be wrong before Friday. He normally receives a notification telling him how much his upcoming paycheck will be, but this week he received the notification twice, about an hour apart.
“I knew something may be wrong because I got it twice,” Passiment said.
Employees subsequently received an email notifying them there was a problem with payroll, according to Passiment.
Nichols said the last information she had received before speaking with The Island News was that the county’s Finance Department knew about the problem and was working on a solution. She had been out of the office with the county’s BCTV crew Friday morning and was returning to the office to gather more information.
Because the payroll delay happened on a Friday, it raised concerns about whether employees would have access to their money before the weekend.
Passiment, however, said he believed the problem could be resolved Friday.
“Obviously it is a concern,” Passiment said. “Obviously we know some people are very aware that they need the money as quickly as they can. And finance and county administration is doing what they can to solve it as quickly as possible.”
When asked whether the county would assist employees who incur overdraft fees or other financial penalties if the problem is not resolved quickly, Passiment said that would have to be addressed if necessary.
“If it comes to that, certainly we’ll have that addressed, but I don’t think it’s going to come to that,” he said.
Passiment said he expected the payroll problem to be resolved Friday afternoon.
The Island News has sent additional questions to Beaufort County seeking information about how many employees are affected, the total amount of payroll involved, when the county first became aware of the problem and what steps are being taken to prevent a similar error from happening again.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.