Richmond paid over $550K to dead retirees
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Richmond has paid over half a million dollars to dead people in the past nine years, according to a recent audit of the city's retirement system.
Why it matters: It's yet another example of why many Richmonders have lost trust in the city's ability to properly handle taxpayer dollars.
Driving the news: The city audit, released Friday, says the Richmond Retirement System (RRS) not only failed to prevent and detect the problem but hasn't recovered most of the money.
- And one retired City Hall employee received nearly $250,000 in benefit payments over seven years after his death.
What they found: The payments happened because of "several control weaknesses," per the audit, including:
- Lack of oversight or management not knowing this was happening.
- Staff failing to identify when a retiree died.
- Inconsistent tracking of overpayments.
- Not acting to recover overpayments even when identified.
- Incomplete death reports.
By the numbers: RRS paid 44 deceased retirees in that period, 32 of whom had been dead for over two months.
- Nine of those retirees died between January 2019 and October 2023 and received payments totaling over $110,000.
Between the lines: These overpayments are a small fraction of the total benefits RRS administers.
- And in response to the audit, RRS — which is governed by a seven-member board — wrote to the city that privacy law changes have made getting death information increasingly difficult.
What's next: Improvements at RRS are already underway, including using better death auditing services, operating procedures and tracking processes.
- They're also holding weekly meetings to review overpayments.
- But given how big the problem is, auditors noted "there is an increased risk that fraud occurred" and recommended further review.