The Connecticut State Office Building. Credit: Donald Eng / Google Streets screen capture
Retirement benefits were improperly calculated for four judges due to lack of oversight, a recent audit of the state’s retirement and benefits fund has found.
The audit, which covered fiscal years 2022 and 2023, also noted incorrect employment data in the state’s database, delays in finalizing retirement benefits in 15 cases and employees who were placed in incorrect retirement tiers.
The Retirement Benefits and Fund is overseen by the Office of the State Comptroller.
The comptroller’s office relied on incorrect or incomplete employment data, and the wrong hire dates, for four out of ten judges reviewed, auditors said, noting that this is a repeat finding from a prior audit. Auditors recommend strengthened internal controls.
In its audit response, the comptroller’s office pushed back on the findings.
“The exceptions cited by the Auditors do not represent either lack of oversight within the Retirement Services Division or systemic failures in the processing of judicial retirements,” it said. “Most resulted from inaccurate information that was provided by the Judicial Branch, and on which the Division no longer relies. In another case, the Auditors challenged an accurate calculation.”
The comptroller’s office also noted that several of the so-called miscalculations had a very minimal impact, resulting in corrections of just a few dollars – from $2.73 per month up to $22.67.
“Errors are inevitable in a database created out of decades of records stored in paper files and various electronic platforms,” the comptroller’s office said. “For this reason, the Retirement Services Division has engaged in a years’-long project of reviewing and correcting the complete employment records of all potential retirees.”
In regards to the delay in finalizing retirement benefits, auditors found one retiree during the audited period who did not receive a pension benefit payment for eight months after their retirement date. Fifteen finalizations were delayed, ranging from seven months to over 15 years after the retirement date, auditors said.
“For disabled retirees, the late finalizations were due to disability retirement cases pending review and approval by the Medical Examining Board,” auditors noted, adding that this was also a repeat finding from a prior audit.
The comptroller’s office in its audit response said the audit conclusions are based on several mistaken premises. Retirees are no longer provided an estimated benefit. Instead – and this applied in 10 out of 13 cases auditors flagged – the retiree received a fully-audited voluntary retirement benefit until the retiree’s application for a disability retirement had been approved by the Medical Examining Board.
The division was able to eliminate a 13,000-case backlog in 2017, and voluntary retirees are now finalized within two months of their initial pension payment, the comptroller’s office said. Increased training is now also provided to agencies and Human Resources professionals on enrollment practices, officials said.