Widespread mismanagement in the Salt Lake County personnel office allowed at least one official to use his post to put family members on the county payroll, according to an audit released Tuesday.

And that perk is just one example of a lack of protocol in the county's personnel division that could be contributing to time card fraud, tuition abuse and suspect hiring practices, auditor Sean Thomas said.

"The whole core mission of the personnel division is to maintain a fair, objective and equitable process in our hiring," Thomas said. "Based on what we've looked at, there were no basic principals as far as how they operate in that division to carry out that mission."

The audit specifically looked at the hiring of Becky Arrigo as an elections specialist by her husband, Roy Arrigo, the compensation manager in the personnel division. The audit said Arrigo violated the county's personnel policy by screening and paring down applicants for the position his wife ultimately received.

Arrigo, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, also bumped up the salary range for his wife's position shortly after she got the job, which also violated the policy prohibiting employees from using their position to secure privileges for themselves or for others, the audit said.

And it's not Arrigo's first time to be cited for improperly pushing his wife's employment. An in-house investigation commissioned by the County Council earlier this year also turned up allegations of Arrigo tampering with the system to get his wife a job.

But that violation is not what alarms Thomas the most. Rather, the lack of a clear policy to disallow employees from influencing the hiring of family members indicates widespread problems within the division, he said.

"It just sort of violates the whole concept of a personnel division," he said. "The systemic thing is a vacuum of policy and standard operating procedures in the personnel division."

Jim Wightman, director of the county's audit division, added that he was also concerned about personnel director Felix McGowan's slow response to the violation.

McGowan, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, issued an unsigned written warning to Arrigo almost nine months after the hiring of Arrigo's wife.

"Though I was aware of your involvement with your wife and daughter's hiring, recent personnel actions regarding your wife which you personally processed suggests a serious lack of judgment and raises the question of conflict of interest," McGowan wrote in a 2004 letter.