BALTIMORE — Baltimore City's Employee Retirement system is short more than half-a-million dollars.
The revelations were made in a new Inspector General's report.
It stems from a labor contract agreement covering fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
The agreement required the City to pay more than 4,000 workers one lump sum in Cost of Living Adjustments, retroactive to July 1, 2021.
Those payments went through, but not without problems.
First, none of the checks included a five-percent deduction towards the City's pension system leaving the retirement system without $533,548.68
Second, about 279 of the 4,341 workers were overpaid nearly $4.4 million.
As result, the City had to scramble to recover the funds.
According to the Inspector General, City agencies debated whether to cover the costs of the retirement deductions rather than asking the workers to return the money.
David Randall, Executive Director of the City Employee Retirement System, said he expects to be fully funded by July 1.
As for the over-payments, several transactions were able to be reversed, but more than $1 million remains outstanding and in the process of being recouped.
The City blamed the discrepancies on low staffing and configuration issues within the payroll system. They claim to have made several changes to avoid similar issues in the future.
Read the full report here.
