Miller: Audit Raises Troubling Questions about Whether Americans are Receiving Accurate Benefits from Federal Agency
WASHINGTON – Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, issued the following statement after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Inspector General released an audit that uncovered a number of serious internal control weaknesses within the agency, resulting in “errors in valuation of plan assets” and “errors in benefit calculations.”
“The independent auditor’s report raises deeply troubling questions about whether retirees receiving PBGC benefits are getting paid the full benefits that are owed to them. How the PBGC handles pension plan terminations and the calculation of retirees’ benefits goes to the very core of the agency’s mission. One of the agency’s key jobs is to pick up the pieces for retirees already betrayed by employers who broke their pension promises. If the PBGC mishandles plan terminations and miscalculates benefits, these retirees are simply betrayed a second time. That is categorically unacceptable.
“For years, retirees subjected to the largest pension plan termination in history – United Airlines – have been raising questions about the handling of their pensions, as have I. While I await the final results of the Inspector General’s latest investigation into United and expect it to shed further light on the precise nature and scope of the errors committed, the findings of today’s audit underscore what is at stake. Indeed, it underscores a systemic problem that may affect retirees well beyond United.
“I am eager to review PBGC’s plan to not only fix these problems going forward, but also their plan to correct all past errors that could adversely affect retirees’ benefits. It must ensure that any retiree underpaid by the PBGC is made whole.
“No one yet knows whether and by how much any retiree may have been shortchanged by the PBGC’s mistakes. But it is high time to find out and fix it. Anything less is unacceptable.”
In July 2010, Miller called on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's new leadership to immediately address serious concerns raised by the agency’s Inspector General that an auditing contractor hired by the agency has failed to exercise due diligence and that PBGC failed to properly oversee the contractor working on the pension plan terminations. Miller asked the Inspector General to look into the PBGC’s handling of the termination of the United Airlines plans in 2009. The Inspector General found that the PBGC and a contractor performing the plan asset audits during the termination process did not exercise due professional care in the valuation of plan assets, which may distort the plan’s health and how much pensioners receive.
To view the Inspector General audit, click there.
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