Chicago paid $26.5 million to more than 1,000 employees for working extra hours between 2020 and 2024, even though they were not eligible for overtime pay, according to a report released Wednesday by the city’s watchdog.
City officials have known for 12 years that ineligible employees were being paid overtime, but took no action to stop tens of millions of dollars from being misspent, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg told WTTW News.
“The city’s finances are, needless to say, in an extremely precarious place, and we can ill-afford mistakes which run well into the eight figures,” Witzburg said in a statement…