Audit Report on Pensioners of the New York City Fire Department Working for the City after Retirement

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

We performed an audit to identify New York City Fire Department Pension Fund (FIRE) retirees who may be illegally re-employed ("double-dippers" or "disability violators"), and to quantify the amounts of any improper payments to individuals who appear to be violators of New York State Retirement and Social Security Law (RSSL), § 210 through § 216, or New York City Charter § 1117, during calendar years 2000 and 2001.

The audit found that five individuals who received $67,779 in pension payments during 2000 that appear to violate applicable sections of State and City laws. In addition, one of the five individuals received $9,754 in improper pension payments in 2001. These individuals were in apparent violation of RSSL § 211 or § 212 because they were under age 70 and received City wages exceeding the limitations without having a waiver on file at FIRE, or were in violation of § 1117 of the New York City Charter because they were collecting disability pensions while earning more than $1,800 a year at a New York City agency and had surpassed their applicable employment anniversary dates. In total, these five individuals may have received improper pension payments of $77,533.

To address these issues the report recommended that FIRE should:

• Investigate those individuals identified as concurrently receiving pensions while being re-employed in public service. FIRE officials should also commence prompt recoupment action against those individuals found to be illegally collecting pensions.
• Forward to the Department of Investigation, if the circumstances warrant such action, the names of those individuals found to be illegally collecting pensions.
• Ascertain whether previous pension overpayments have been recouped and whether current pensions have been suspended for those individuals who have been cited in previous audits as "double-dippers" or "disability violators."
• Send special reminders to service retirees under the age of 70, and to all disability retirees, that clearly state their responsibilities regarding public service re-employment.
• Set up a monitoring program, in conjunction with the other retirement systems, to identify those City retirees re-employed in New York public service.

Reinforce to City agencies, in conjunction with the other retirement systems, the importance of maintaining effective procedures to ensure that City pensioners comply with State and City laws regarding public service re-employment.