Police pension fund audits find accounting errors

Accounting errors were identified in new state audits of South Huntingdon and Ligonier Township police pension funds.

According to findings released this week by Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor both townships saw funding discrepancies associated with contributions made to the pension funds.

Two errors were identified related to Ligonier’s fund dating back to 2018. One involved an allegation that the township did not deposit the full amount of a state allocation into the local pension account. The audit revealed that township officials received $74,262 in September 2018 but only deposited $57,911 into the pension fund.

A second finding noted that township officials request for funding in 2022 was based on an incorrect employee count and as a result Ligonier received excess funding of $6,569 for its pension account.

Township officials signed off on the audit findings and agreed to transfer more than $16,000 into Ligonier Valley Regional Police pension fund related to the 2018 error and repay the state for the excess allocation last year.

“The township lacked consistent internal control procedures to annually reconcile the amount of state aide allocated to the pension plan…,” according to the audit.

Ligonier officials did not respond to a request for comment.

South Huntingdon supervisors also miscounted the number of police department staffers eligible for a state reimbursement in 2019 to the township’s pension fund, shorting itself $5,120. That money will be repaid to the township, according to the audit.