Pennsylvania’s Greensburg.According to county detectives, a former director of the Westmoreland County Purchasing Department has been charged with theft and misappropriation of entrusted property after being accused of making unlawful salary adjustments.
Trafford resident Kristopher Cardiff is charged with ordering a worker to manually change payroll hours in order to increase department staff members’ workdays, even though he did not have the necessary authorization. According to investigators, Cardiff’s actions between August 2023 and August 2024 led to nearly $10,000 in unlawful pay increases throughout the department, with Cardiff earning nearly $5,400 of those raises.
When the county’s fiscal department found anomalies during the 2025 budget preparation process in August 2024, the disparities were identified. Investigators discovered that, in contrast to the typical 6.5-hour workweek, which includes a one-hour unpaid lunch break, the purchasing department had been entering a 7-hour weekday into payroll records.
Detectives discovered that Cardiff had proposed in July 2023 to expand work hours to seven hours a day and shorten the lunch break, but the salary board had denied the motion. Cardiff apparently told employees to keep entering the inflated hours in spite of this, claiming that the claims were untrue.
The modifications benefited Cardiff and five other employees in total, with one employee getting over $3,600. After a two-week work study, the employee who entered the hours told investigators she did it at Cardiff’s direction and thought the modifications had been approved.
Cardiff admitted in email exchanges with HR that his request for the raise was not approved, according to detectives.
The case demonstrates the continuous examination of the county government’s payroll procedures.
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