We all make mistakes. We all screw up. It’s human to make mistakes.
So it is little surprise that the humans at PSA make an occasional mistake. When PSA Chair Alex Blount announced their failure to properly fund employees’ retirement accounts, he made it very clear that malicious theft like had previously occurred was not at hand this time. Simple, repetitive carelessness is to blame.
We have been assured that all employee accounts have now been made whole. That’s reassuring.
The Tribune & Georgian headlined the story. We’ve identified a few deficiencies in Mr. Blount’s explanation:
Interestingly, no one, including the PSA accountants, noticed the missing deposits, the excess cash, or any unbudgeted spending that absorbed the excess cash.
Why didn’t the PSA accountants and auditors catch multiple missing payments “because prior year budgets have already been closed?” Just how many years went by before the ‘mistake’ was found?
“The PSA will need to make cuts or find additional revenue”, not because the original deposits were not made, but because over the past several years, employee accounts did not accumulate the earnings that would have come from the amounts they were owned that were left in the PSA’s account. That’s the true shortage! Taxpayers will fund the earnings that should have come from investing at high-interest rates during the shortage period.
”It’s really going to hurt us this year.” Who is US, Kemosabe? Not the Board that oversees the PSA. Not the PSA workers unless they are taxpayers in Camden County -- or unless they get a cut in their overtime. No. The taxpayers will make up the lost earnings or services that were included in the amounts paid by every taxpayer in Camden County. Of course, maybe the PSA can find a grant somewhere that reimburses negligence by a public agency.
The PSA is “not sitting with excess money in accounts.” As it should be. Proper oversight would have caught this much sooner. This event is just one of an ongoing string of oversights at the PSA. The PSA board consists of elected officials from the County and our three cities, plus a few citizens. With indictments from the multi-million-dollar PSA theft scandal still unresolved taxpayers demand better oversight of our Parks and Recreation Authority.
Maybe, just maybe, if the legislatively required proper contract was in place between the PSA and the cities and County, more attention to such details as broken playground equipment and stolen and missing money would come with added efficiency and transparency. Just maybe, you think?
Question 1: Did Mr. Blount clearly state how much this will cost us in lost services or new funding?
Or did he? It’s not very clear.
Question 2: Do we still owe the IRS the settlement over the previously undeposited payroll taxes? If so, how much is still owed?
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