The latest findings come four months after auditors first found problems with the department. However, that audit was limited to a small sampling of data from last year. This second review, looked at sick time and work shift trades dating to 2006.

CLEVELAND - Cleveland's fire department is once again under fire, as city leaders on Tuesday released a second audit of the department. The new audit shows widespread abuse of sick time within the department, as well as shift trades by firefighters.

Those abuses cost taxpayers millions of dollars and even forced the city to temporarily take fire trucks out of service.

The new audit suggests as many as 200 firefighters, a quarter of the department, may have worked the system for years. Among the findings, sick-time records of some fire division employees were never adequately kept and some shift trades were not documented.

Because of the audit, Cleveland is enacting new procedures to better track who is working, and for how long. Cleveland safety director Martin Flask said the newly-consolidated EMS and fire payroll will be overseen by a civilian employee who will report to the assistant director of public safety. The fire department will no longer be in charge of payroll.

Cleveland will also install new fingerprint time clocks, which would require an employee to place his finger on the clock when checking into work.

The latest findings come four months after auditors first found problems with the department. However, that audit was limited to a small sampling of data from last year. This second review, looked at sick time and work shift trades dating to 2006.