West Virginia has a law against double-dipping by public employees. WV Code 5-10-48 is designed to prevent state workers from retiring and then getting rehired to do the same or similar work while receiving both a paycheck from the state and their full retirement benefits.
The law provides some exemptions. For example, a retired public employee can work for the state full-time, but their annuity payments must be suspended, or a retiree can be hired on a temporary basis and continue to receive their annuity as long as their annual compensation is no more than $15,000.
The intent of the law is clear. It sets up reasonable ways for a retired worker with valuable skills to provide a service to the state and get paid, but prevents the employee from getting the benefits of a retiree along with a full salary.
If that were kosher, state workers would retire as soon as they could, then return to the very same job. The employee would make out like a bandit, while taxpayers footed the bill.
West Virginia legislative auditors became interested in the double-dip issue after a report surfaced some months back that former Division of Personnel director Joe Smith was getting his full annuity as well as a hefty paycheck from the state while serving as consultant to Governor Manchin and later Governor Tomblin.
The auditors decided to take a closer look and, surprise, Smith wasn’t the only person benefiting from the double-dip.
The audit, released Tuesday to lawmakers, found that “35 individuals received payment from the state in excess of $15,000 in CY 2011 and still received their full annuities.”
You can read the full audit here.
When you add up the numbers you find that those 35 employees were paid $1,276,098 in salaries while also receiving $840,404 in retirement payments. That’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the double-dipping at the very least violates the spirit of the law.
It’s important to note that the audit only looked at the double-dipping by retirees in the Public Employee Retirement System. The other retirement systems were not checked, so it’s possible hundreds more former state workers are milking the system.
The auditors sent their report to the Consolidated Public Retirement Board, which concedes that there may be some overpayments. If so, the Board says it will request reimbursement. But the Board doesn’t appear to want the ongoing responsibility of checking for double-dips.
“The CPRB was created to administer the nine plans entrusted to it by the Legislature and the determination of employment status is not within our scope and would be better suited to be determined by someone specializing in employment law,” executive director Jeffrey Fleck wrote to the auditors.
Well, okay, but somebody has to take the lead here. The Legislative Auditor has highlighted the problem, perhaps only scratching the surface. Now it’s time for Charleston to get a handle on this abuse.