PRINTER'S NO. 1142
No. 132 Session of 2003
INTRODUCED BY DENT, SEPTEMBER 2, 2003
REFERRED TO FINANCE, SEPTEMBER 2, 2003
A RESOLUTION
1 Urging the respective boards of trustees of the State Employees'
2 Retirement System (SERS) and the Public School Employees'
3 Retirement System (PSERS) to cooperate fully with the
4 Department of the Auditor General's independent special
5 performance audits of the two retirement systems and urging
6 the Auditor General to conduct the audits in a professional
7 manner.
8 WHEREAS, A dispute has arisen between the Department of the
9 Auditor General and the boards of trustees of the retirement
10 systems regarding the department's authority to conduct
11 independent special performance audits of the retirement systems
12 and the boards' authority to spend retirement system assets to
13 pay for the audits; and
14 WHEREAS, The boards of trustees declined the Department of
15 the Auditor General's requests and subpoenas for documents
16 needed for its special performance audits, and the Department of
17 the Auditor General in turn commenced an action against the
18 board of trustees in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania; and
19 WHEREAS, The boards of trustees acknowledged the need for
20 performance audits of the retirement systems, by seeking to
1 contract their own audits from an outside consultant selected,
2 directed and paid by the retirement systems; and
3 WHEREAS, Auditor General Casey has stated publicly that his
4 department would only seek reimbursement of costs associated
5 with the retention of outside consultants should the assistance
6 be required and that the retirement systems would not be
7 required to reimburse the department for the time and expenses
8 incurred by department employees in conducting the performance
9 audits; and
10 WHEREAS, Continuation of this dispute will result in the
11 wasteful expenditure of retirement system assets and
12 unnecessarily call into question the boards' prudent management
13 of those assets; therefore be it
14 RESOLVED, That the Senate urge SERS, PSERS and the Auditor
15 General to cooperate fully in the conduct of the performance
16 audits; and be further
17 RESOLVED, That the Senate urge the boards of trustees and the
18 Department of the Auditor General to enter into an agreement on
19 the costs of the performance audits that provides for
20 reimbursement of the department's expenses in amounts not to
21 exceed the amounts that the boards of trustees were prepared to
22 pay to the outside consultants they had sought to commission;
23 and be it further
24 RESOLVED, That the Senate urge Auditor General Casey to be
25 aware of its desire not to unduly alarm elderly annuitants of
26 the retirement systems and to provide that audits be conducted
27 and findings be presented in an entirely professional,
28 nonpartisan manner; and be it further
29 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
30 the retirement systems, including the individual members of the
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1 respective boards of trustees, and the Auditor General.
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