Wisconsin taxpayers lost nearly $15 million last year because the University of Wisconsin System made a mistake. The UW System kept paying most of the health insurance premiums for 924 employees after they were fired between May of 2011 and September of last year. The Legislative Audit Bureau found that those over-payments totaled $8 million – but the university could only recover $228,000.
The UW System overpaid employee health premiums by almost $15.5 million, and that’s just over the 17-months that were checked. The UW also overpaid $17.5 million in employee retirement contributions, but the state Department of Employee Trust Funds ended up giving the university a credit for those overpayments.
The audit revealed that U-W officials did not reconcile the amount of premiums collected with the coverage that was provided – and they made manual errors in calculating retirement contributions.
Larry, Lee, WSAU
