PRINTER'S NO. 2281
No. 343 Session of 2003
INTRODUCED BY LEWIS, ARMSTRONG, BIANCUCCI, CAPPELLI, CRAHALLA,
CREIGHTON, DALLY, DeWEESE, GEORGE, GOODMAN, GORDNER, GRUCELA,
HANNA, HERSHEY, HUTCHINSON, REICHLEY, RUBLEY, SATHER,
SCAVELLO, SEMMEL, TIGUE, TRUE, TURZAI AND WATSON,
JUNE 30, 2003
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON FINANCE, JUNE 30, 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 support and cooperate fully with
4 the Office of Attorney General's section 402 ruling, with the
5 Department of the Auditor General's special performance
6 audits of SERS and PSERS and with the timely and professional
7 completion of the special performance audits.
8 WHEREAS, An unfortunate dispute has arisen between the
9 Department of the Auditor General, the Treasurer's Office, the
10 Office of Attorney General and the boards of trustees of the
11 pension systems regarding the authority of the department to
12 conduct independent special performance audits of the systems
13 and the authority of the boards of trustees to spend system
14 assets to pay for such audits; and
15 WHEREAS, The General Assembly encourages the boards of
16 trustees to efficiently and prudently manage and oversee the
17 retirement assets of these systems; and
18 WHEREAS, The boards of trustees have declined the Department
19 of the Auditor General's requests and subpoenas for documents
1 needed for its special performance audits, and the Department of
2 the Auditor General in turn commenced an action against the
3 boards of trustees in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania;
4 and
5 WHEREAS, The boards of trustees acknowledged the need for
6 performance audits of the systems in seeking to contract their
7 own audits from an outside consultant selected, directed and
8 paid by the systems; and
9 WHEREAS, The Office of Attorney General rejected the boards
10 of trustees' proposed contracts citing section 402 of The Fiscal
11 Code, which directs that an administrative board is prohibited
12 from expending any funds appropriated to it by the House of
13 Representatives for an audit of its affairs unless the
14 Department of the Auditor General shall fail or refuse to
15 conduct such audit; and
16 WHEREAS, The Department of the Auditor General has publicly
17 declared its policy to only seek reimbursement of costs
18 associated with the retention of outside consultants should such
19 assistance be required and that the systems would not be
20 required to reimburse the department for time and expenses
21 incurred by department employees in conducting performance
22 audits; and
23 WHEREAS, The unproductive extension of this dispute is
24 costly, time-consuming and disruptive to taxpayers and system
25 assets and unnecessarily calls into question the prudent
26 management of those assets by the boards of trustees; therefore
27 be it
28 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge all
29 departments, SERS, PSERS and their respective boards of trustees
30 to cooperate fully with the Department of the Auditor General's
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1 special performance audits of SERS and PSERS; and be it further
2 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the boards
3 of trustees and the Department of the Auditor General to enter
4 into an agreement on the costs of the performance audits that
5 provides for reimbursement of the department's expenses in
6 amounts not to exceed the amounts which the boards of trustees
7 were prepared to pay to the outside consultants they had sought;
8 and be it further
9 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the Auditor
10 General to not unduly alarm elderly annuitants and to provide
11 that audits be conducted and findings presented in an entirely
12 professional, nonpartisan manner; and be it further
13 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
14 the Governor, the Senate, SERS, PSERS and the individual members
15 of the respective boards of trustees.
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