RI disability pension papers go missing

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - As Rhode Island works to reform its broken pension system, Eyewitness News has learned that the state is missing paperwork for a significant number of workers who are collecting taxpayer-funded disability pensions.

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The Providence City Council approved an ordinance to bring in an outside auditor to investigate every single disability pension in the capital city last month.

"What the audit says is that internally, management hasn't been doing a good enough job to do record-keeping around are people still disabled, continually verifying income levels, and it's just crystal clear that we need to have a more efficient, more formalized disability process to preserve the integrity of this system," said General Treasurer Gina Raimondo.

She continued, "You cannot say that there's a gaming of the system, you cannot say that there's fraud with the system, that wasn't what came out of this audit. All that came out of this audit was a very clear picture that we need to tighten the ship."

After reviewing over 500 files, auditors found that the state is lacking proof that hundreds of those collecting disability benefits are actually disabled.

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Between 2006 and 2008, 40 percent of the files reviewed lacked the required documentation.

In 2003, none of the more than 200 files reviewed contained the proper paperwork.

Raimondo calls the findings unacceptable.

"The inconsistencies we found around how this office in the past has properly done the documentation, there were significant inconsistencies, significant lapses. I was very disappointed with what I inherited and what I found. So, it's our job to really improve the way we do business here at this treasury...Rhode Islanders should know that we are going to immediately fix the inconsistencies and small things that we found and they can rest assured that I've taken charge of this and that we're going to fix the way we do things and we're going to institute new protocals, new manuals and make this an efficient, transparent system that is well-run."