Baltimore city failed to make more than $500,000 in retirement contributions to some employees and overpaid others by more than $4 million, according to a new report by the Office of the Inspector General.
The report reveals that staffing issues are at least partially to blame for the problem.
The IG's office received a complaint in September of 2022 about the Bureau of Accounting and Payroll Services failing to deduct employee retirement contributions.
The office's investigation found that the city's agreements with multiple labor unions included retroactive wage increases that would need to be processed as lump-sum payments. When those payments were processed, the city did not take out required retirement contributions, according to the report. The missed payments totaled $533,548.68, according to the investigation.
Investigators also found that 279 Baltimore City Employees were overpaid by a total of $4,390,464.68. The Department of Finance was able to reverse some of the overpayments and was in the process of collecting the remaining overpayments, according to the report.
The IG report found that several problems apparently led to the payment issue. Those problems include configuration issues and low staffing levels.
In a response to the report, Department of Finance Director Michael Moiseyev revealed that Payroll only had one full-time employee that was supported by a team of contractors. Those contractors lacked detailed knowledge of the city's payroll configurations, according to Moiseyev's letter.