Apr 11, 2017 2 min read

Editor’s note: This story has been modified from a previous version to correct information about an employee’s status.

State officials say Canton Township must return $6,620 in excess state aid for its pension plan that it received in 2014.

An audit released last week by state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale found the township must return that amount with interest or risk losing future state aid.

DePasquale’s office found the township failed to reconcile the costs of its nonuniformed employee pension plan with the money forfeited by an employee who resigned that year – which the township used to help pay the costs of the plan – and state aid it received. His status with the township retirement plan was terminated upon his resignation.

According to the auditor’s report, the state paid $30,981 to the township that year. Canton paid a total of $30,869 in pension costs that year. The township used $13,719 forfeited by a fired employee to pay the plan’s costs. It returned $7,211 in excess state aid but kept $23,770, leaving a balance of $6,620 it should have also given back to the state, officials said.

“It is this department’s opinion that that … it is inappropriate to use state aid in one year to offset pension costs in other years,” according to the report.

The office said the overpayment must be repaid or “the township’s future state aid allocations may be withheld until the finding recommendation is complied with.” The report also said the office will monitor compliance with that recommendation in the next audit of the plan.

Township secretary-treasurer Stephanie Pettit couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the audit Tuesday.