Two supervisors in the Orleans Parish district attorney's child support enforcement division have been fired for giving employees in the division salary advances.

Val Solino, the office's first assistant, says the advances, which ranged from a couple hundred dollars to $2,000, have been repaid to the office. He says most had been repaid by the time independent auditors, conducting a required annual audit for 2007, uncovered the suspicious checks.

He says the use of public money to advance employees their pay is improper.

Michelle Beaty-Gullage, the head of the division, was fired, along with Keely Robinson, the office manager.

Contacted about the terminations, Beaty-Gullage said advances were typically given to the lowest-paid workers in the division, collection specialists, when they needed help buying groceries or making rent.

She says the advances were well documented in the division's paperwork, and no effort was made to hide the practice.