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An audit by Buffalo city comptrollers has found what they described as a management "meltdown" in the city's Human Resources Department, in which double payments were made towards workers' health insurance. The audit, which portrayed the department as backlogged, poorly trained and managed, found $526,309 in overpayments over the period from July 2006 to December 2008, including a number of payments for individuals who are deceased. City Auditor Darryl McPherson cited a lack of institutional culpability in department leadership as the root of the trouble, while Human Resources Commissioner Karla L. Thomas blamed her predecessor and the Comptroller's office itself for the errors.