According to OPA, the Fund agreed with its recommendation that erroneous and unnecessary travel reimbursements must be collected.
Collection efforts began as early as 2003 but the government wasn’t successful.
“He [the then-Fund administrator] authorized the comptroller to deduct from payroll any amounts due from travelers and require board trustees who are not part of the government payroll to immediately repay the advances when a completed travel voucher is submitted. OPA was not informed, however, of the expected date of when the scheduled overpayments will be collected,” the OPA said in its latest audit report which classified the case as “resolved-delinquent.”
OPA did not disclose the name of the former Fund administrator and trustees involved in this case.
A resolved case means OPA is satisfied that the client cannot take immediate action but has established reasonable plan and time frame for action. It is considered delinquent if the recommendation hasn’t been met within 180 days.
In 2006, officials from the OPA, the Attorney General’s Office and the Fund discussed different options to recoup funds such as civil collection efforts, criminal prosecutions and statutory revisions potentially allowing retiree pay garnishment.
Public Auditor Michael Pai said the government could potentially recover $2.6 million in seven different audit reports that his office referred to the AGO.
“On Dec. 1, 2009, OPA met with the attorney general to discuss the status of these referrals. The attorney general advised OPA that AGO will conduct further review of these referrals and will provide OPA the results of its review. As such, the status of these referrals remains unchanged,” Pai wrote in the summary of his office’s latest audit reports.
