April 19, 2007 — The board of trustees of the Government Employees Retirement System voted to add an internal auditor and an extensive audit of their accounts to the items on their fiscal 2007 budget during a short public meeting Thursday.
Trustee Marvin Pickering proposed hiring an internal auditor that would report directly to the board, with a salary of no more than $140,000, an executive assistant at $55,000 a year, and allocating $60,000 for what he termed a forensic audit.
A forensic audit deals with matters that have legal consequences, such as a fraud investigation. At the last GERS board meeting in March, Pickering and chairman Vincent Liger both mentioned the discovery of “financial irregularities.”
Asked at the time for details concerning the irregularities, Liger said the board needed to go over the documents thoroughly before making a statement. Liger said the board would report on their findings soon.
Before the March meeting, Liger placed then GERS Administrator and Chief Financial Officer William Todmann on administrative leave and during the meeting Todmann’s letter of resignation was read.
The board did not suggest any connection between the resignation and the revelation of irregularities. Liger confirmed the proposed forensic audit was at least partially connected to the irregularities. Details were not to be pried from the board.
“I’m not at liberty to talk about that,” said Liger when asked in March whether there were any connections between the departure of Todmann and the discovery of financial irregularities. Both Todmann and the board have been silent on the matter since then.
Todmann’s resignation does not take effect until April 23. Todmann was present at Thursday's meeting when it began. Shortly after opening the meeting, the board moved into executive session to discuss personnel and legal matters, expelling the media and the public. Todmann remained in the meeting and left shortly after the board moved back into open session, making no public comment.
After returning to open session, the board voted in favor of Pickering’s audit proposal and approved the GERS fiscal 2007 operations and administration budgets. The meeting was then cut short, partly due to technical problems with transcription. Discussion of the state of GERS finances and other business were postponed until the board’s May meeting.
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