Letter Report on the New York City Police Pension Fund’s Controls over the Identification of Deceased Individuals Collecting Pension Payments

The audit objective was to determine whether The New York City Police Pension Fund (POLICE) had the controls in place to detect and prevent the illegal collection of pension payments after the death of a pensioner or beneficiary.

POLICE utilizes a monthly death match report comparing Federal Social Security Administration (SSA) and the New York City Pension Payroll Management System (PPMS) records to identify deceased individuals collecting pension payments. POLICE itself does not produce the death match reports. POLICE accesses the New York City Financial Information Service Agency’s (FISA) Death Match Discrepancy Report from the Report Management and Distribution System (RMDS). FISA receives SSA death reports and compares that data against the data in PPMS to create the RMDS Death Match Discrepancy Report. The report lists individuals who have been reported as deceased during that month and are also receiving pension payments.

In 2009, POLICE approached the Office of Payroll Administration (OPA) about creating a new death match report because the Death Match Discrepancy Report did not utilize a cumulative database. From October 2009 to March 2010, POLICE ran test versions of a report (HR-11) generated through the City Human Resources and Management System (CHRMS). The HR-11 report, preprogrammed by OPA, utilizes a cumulative database to identify and reduce instances of payments to deceased recipients and to compare dates of death recorded within PPMS to a database of deceased individuals. A match is generated when a pensioner or beneficiary listed as active (not deceased) in PPMS is reported as deceased in the database. The database of deceased individuals is updated on a monthly basis with a file provided by SSA.

Results

The audit found that POLICE recognized a deficiency in the RMDS reports and took initiative to rectify the issue. In addition, the audit found that POLICE took appropriate action regarding those individuals who were identified as deceased and adequately handles the suspension of pension payments once notified of an individual’s date of death. However, the HR-11 and Death Match Discrepancy reports lack evidence of supervisory approval and identification of the staff responsible for the initial examination. Moreover, the PPMS CHRMS system only produces reports (e.g., the HR-11) on a real-time basis and cannot be recreated or generated to obtain past information. Consequently, POLICE needs to ensure that work performed by staff is documented and supervisory reviews are evidenced by signoff—attesting to compliance with policies and procedures.

POLICE officials declined to submit a formal response to this report.