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Montgomery County employees have been asked to pay back nearly $4,000 that was improperly distributed through the county's tuition assistance program.

Joe Adler, director of human resources for the county, said that his office has been reviewing payments to employees made in fiscal 2010, which began in July.

As of Tuesday, officials found that five employees had received funding for items other than tuition, such as supplies and books. In total, those employees were asked to refund $3,745. The county has received about $1,100 so far, Adler said.

"In some cases where it appears that the cost of the program (includes) tuition and other expenses for books and supplies, we're going back and asking for an itemized deduction," Adler told a council committee Monday.

An internal audit of the tuition assistance program also is scheduled to begin this week.

Tuition assistance funds can be spent on education to obtain a degree or certificate, on training, or on courses to improve job skills not linked to a degree. The reimbursement is only to be used for tuition, officials have said.

Several ongoing investigations into the program led to its shutdown Sept. 30.

The County Council's Management and Fiscal Policy Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At large) of North Bethesda, discussed those investigations during a committee meeting Monday.

Timothy Firestine, chief administrative officer for the county, announced the decision to halt the program in a Sept. 30 e-mail to employees.

The tuition program has been under council scrutiny for months, after it was revealed that public safety employees taking training classes were allowed to buy discounted weapons for personal use.

Now, County Council members say county employees were conducting the courses, and potential ethical violations need to be investigated.

Council members also have questioned the value of some of the courses the county paid employees to complete and the oversight of the program, for which $830,420 was budgeted in fiscal 2010.

The subjects of courses included the Bible, yoga and martial arts.

The county already had spent $418,000 of what was budgeted in fiscal 2010 when the program was shut down, officials have said. Further spending on the program has been suspended, including about $370,000 in pending reimbursement requests.

Employees can receive a maximum of $1,730 annually to pay for tuition and training.

On Monday, Adler offered some information about the way the program has operated in the past.

Of the 752 employees working toward a degree with the county money, 121 reported earning a degree from fiscal 2005 through fiscal 2010, according to Adler. Another 128 employees are expected to earn their degree in the next several years.

During that same time period, 18 employees reported earning a certificate showing they had completed a certain program, and another six expect to earn a certificate in the next several years, he said.

In his memo, Adler stated that, "The Office of Human Resources maintains an individual tuition assistance file for all employees participating in the program. For coursework not leading to a degree or certificate program, OHR requires the employee to submit a copy of the course description for review. ... Course descriptions for a college degree or certificate program are not required to be submitted."

Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring said she first requested course descriptions for six weeks ago, but has not received that information from Adler's office.

Adler said officials are compiling an electronic database of course descriptions that will be available for council members to review by Nov. 23.

When officials are done scrutinizing expenses in the current fiscal year, they will begin investigating past expenses to see if additional county employees should return funds they received, Adler said.

The three employee unions — the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 35; the Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 1664, and the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, UFCW, Local 1994 — are opposed to the program's suspension.

Last month, they vowed to file grievances with the county, claiming that the suspension of the tuition assistance program is a violation of their contracts. The FOP has filed a grievance with the county, but it was unclear Tuesday whether the other unions had done so.