LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Metro Council Members are finding out what allowed the Louisville Metro Police Department's overtime pay scandal, exposed by WDRB News, to happen and what's being done to prevent it from happening again.

The government oversight committee on Tuesday heard the results of the first part of an audit Metro Council called for in September 2018. Months before that, a WDRB investigation found that officers had claimed 21-hour days, officers working weeks or months without taking a day off, including weekends, and that the department blew through half of its overtime pay for 2017 in the first six weeks of the year.

The group that conducted the audit found several oversight issues within LMPD that prevent it from knowing just how much of the millions spent on overtime from December 2016 through August 2018 was wasted.

"In some instances, a lack of documentation. In some instances, a lack of executed agreements. And then, in some instances, a lack of standard guidelines around fee waiver," said May Porter, with the Metro Office of Internal Audit.

Committee Chair Brent Ackerson, D-26, said the audit indicates a need for more checks and balances.

"This is a perfect example of how we're not efficient at the moment, and that we should be," he said.

Three former LMPD officers were convicted of faking overtime from 2014 to 2017 and pleaded guilty in October 2019. They were then ordered to pay restitution and sentenced in February of this year to probation, which was recommended by prosecutors instead of prison sentences.

The department said it plans to make 18 of the 22 changes recommended by the review, which is the first part of the audit. Part two of the audit is expected to be released within the next two months.

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