Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System, Harrisburg, revised its investment performance returns, which will lead to an increase in employee contribution rates.
In December, the $64.2 billion PennPSERS board reported a net annualized return of 6.38% for the nine years ended June 30, slightly above the 6.36% threshold for triggering additional contributions.
But in March, the board had discovered an error in its reported investment figures and announced that a special investigation was being conducted.
So, at a meeting held Monday, the board voted to certify that the plan's actual nine-year performance was 6.34%, below the threshold and therefore triggering additional employee contributions beginning July 1.
"The Board regrets the uncertainty and confusion caused by these errors. PSERS will begin work immediately to notify school employees and school employers around the Commonwealth," said a statement issued by the pension plan. "The Board has engaged outside counsel to perform an independent internal investigation to determine how this error occurred and ensure that similar errors do not occur in the future."
On April 8, the PennPSERS board confirmed that a federal investigation had been launched into the state pension plan, saying in a news release that it had been "served with a grand jury subpoena for documents and is cooperating fully with the request by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania."
PennPSERS spokeswoman Evelyn Williams declined to comment beyond confirming that the board will "continue to cooperate with the government investigation."
