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$619 billion missed from federal transparency site

 A government website intended to make federal spending more transparent was missing at least $619 billion from 302 federal programs, a government audit has found.

And the data that does exist is wildly inaccurate, according to the Government Accountability Office, which looked at 2012 spending data. Only 2% to 7% of spending data onUSASpending.gov is "fully consistent with agencies' records," according to the report.

Among the data missing from the 6-year-old federal website:

• The Department of Health and Human Services failed to report nearly $544 billion, mostly in direct assistance programs like Medicare. The department admitted that it should have reported aggregate numbers of spending on those programs.

• The Department of the Interior did not report spending for 163 of its 265 assistance programs because, the department said, its accounting systems were not compatible with the data formats required by USASpending.gov. The result: $5.3 billion in spending missing from the website.

• The White House itself failed to report any of the programs it's directly responsible for. At the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is part of the White House, officials said they thought HHS was responsible for reporting their spending. 

For more than 22% of federal awards, the spending website literally doesn't know where the money went. The "place of performance" of federal contracts was most likely to be wrong.

That's a problem, said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

"We live in a world in which information drives decisions," Carper said. "And, given the budget constraints that our government faces, we need reliable information on how and where our money is being spent."

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, asks a question at a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 18, 2013.(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

The report comes as the Obama administration begins to implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which Congress passed last year to expand the amount of federal spending data available to the public.

The report said the Office of Management and Budget needed to exercise greater oversight of federal agencies reporting spending data. "Until these weaknesses are addressed, any effort to use the data will be hampered by uncertainties about accuracy," the report said.

OMB spokesman Jamal Brown said the administration is already working to improve the data following the passage of the DATA Act last year. "OMB is committed to federal spending transparency and working with agencies to improve the completeness and accuracy of data submissions," he said in a statement.

The administration is also transferring responsibility for the website from the General Services Administration to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service in the Department of the Treasury.

Public safety officers claim injury but rack up OT

Anthony Casareale made more than $45,000 over the past five years as a part-time recreation assistant in Yonkers, a modest income compared to the $156,000 tax-free disability pension he gets as a retired city police sergeant.

The 57-year-old Yonkers resident was on the job 25 years, long enough to retire on a regular pension that would pay him half of his final-year salary — which included $110,000 in overtime he worked despite nagging ankle and shoulder injuries. But Casareale sought more money, applying for and receiving an "accidental" disability designation, meaning he suffered a line-of-duty injury that left him unable to work anymore. That status raised his pension to 75 percent of his salary and made it tax-free.

He is one of 25 retired cops, firefighters and correction officers in the Lower Hudson Valley who collected disability pensions over $100,000, as of April 2013. Statewide, a total of 171 public safety retirees made that much in disability pensions.

Records obtained by The Journal News show that 17 of the 25 local retirees worked right up until retirement, with many logging huge amounts of overtime in their final year. Despite being well enough to work all those extra hours, they claimed injuries that ended their careers, in some cases from incidents that occurred years earlier. This year, they will collect $3.17 million in combined pension payments.

Among that group of high-end retired earners, first responders in Westchester and Rockland are the highest, averaging disability pensions that are $20,000 a year more than their counterparts elsewhere in New York.

All public safety pensions are free of state taxes. Retired officers on disability pensions also pay no federal income tax. Statewide that translates into roughly $4 million to $6 million in collective savings on federal income tax for six-figure disability retirees.

New York City, however, has its own pension system, which requires some federal taxes for disability pensions.

It's a benefit, Casareale, the Yonkers police sergeant, maintained he has earned.

"I didn't break any laws. I worked my ass off and I believe that I deserve everything I got," he said. "I retired, applied for disability, and was granted disability because I could no longer do my job. Anybody wants to watch me play with my grandchildren and not be able to throw a ball to them is welcome to come on over and hang out."

"Do you think I wanted to retire at 52 years old? I was the senior police sergeant in the city of Yonkers," Casareale said. "I enjoyed myself. I enjoyed going to work every day. I could no longer do it."

Although the job description for recreation assistant includes some strenuous activity and participation in sports activities, Casareale's responsibility is to "open/close and monitor facilities that have program activities scheduled," a city spokeswoman, Christina Gilmartin, wrote in an email. He is paid $8.75 an hour and can work up to 30 hours a week.

"In his case, the required activities do not demand much physical involvement," Gilmartin wrote.

The Journal News filed Freedom of Information requests for the state pension data following its investigative report in March, which detailed the millions spent by Westchester, Rockland and Putnam taxpayers to pay public safety employees who remain on disability leave for years. The report revealed that nearly one in four Lower Hudson Valley emergency responders retire with disability pensions – 10 percent higher than the state average and above the New York City Police Department's 18 percent average.

The highest disability pension in the region — and the state — belongs to Gerardo Gizzo. Gizzo was a Westchester County police officer who retired in 2010, two years after he was hit while climbing out of his patrol car on the Hutchinson River Parkway. He was one of the department's biggest overtime earners in the years leading up to the accident. His $183,213 annual pension is based on his three highest-paid years between 2005 and 2008, which included a combined $261,500 in overtime pay.

Most retirees have pensions based on the average of their best consecutive three years of work. Some municipalities, like Yonkers, however, pay extra into the state pension fund to give their public safety retirees the benefit of pensions based on their final year of income. Those retirees can opt for the three-year average if that ends up being more money.

Among the local retirees, Casareale was one of 14 from the Yonkers Police Department. Three were Clarkstown police officers and two were Westchester correction officers. Gizzo was the only Westchester County police retiree and there was also one each from the Yonkers and New Rochelle fire departments and the Ramapo, Greenburgh and Mamaroneck town police departments.

The 171 statewide retirees included 52 Port Authority police officers; 50 Nassau County police officers; 26 Suffolk County police; seven Nassau County correction officers; two Suffolk County correction officers; and a state trooper. The remaining eight were police from Long Island communities.

The highest pensions belong to downstate retirees, not surprisingly given the region's higher salaries. But even downstate there is a gap. The average six-figure disability pension for the 25 in Westchester and Rockland is $126,830, compared to $106,551 for the remaining 146, most of them from Long Island.

Interactive: Police officer and firefighter disability spending by town

Nearly all of the pensions were granted as "accidental" disability pensions by the state Comptroller's Office. Those pensions are reserved for work-related injuries caused by unforeseen circumstances, and pay out 75 percent of the retiree's final average salary, free of federal tax. "Performance of duty" disability pensions pay 50 percent but are also federal tax free. Regular, nondisability pensions pay out at least 50 percent but are not exempt from federal taxes.

Retired Yonkers police Lt. David Trancynger's accidental disability pension cites five contributing on-duty incidents leading to back and neck injuries during a 28-year career that ended in 2006, including a car accident and two "substantial" falls on ice.

He said he decided to retire sometime in 2005 after battling pain for years. He worked $74,000 worth of overtime in his final year – up from $50,000 the year before – because it was available, "not to feather my retirement."

"With all my back injuries, as time went on, the arthritis sets in and you live on painkillers," said Trancynger, 59. "The pain got to the point that I had to go…They say you know when it's time. I knew."

"Don't demonize us. We didn't invent the system," he added. "I earned every dollar I made, believe me."

Trancynger initially thought a regular pension would be enough to sustain him in retirement, especially if he could augment his income working security. But due to the pain he said he had to stop working after just a few months. He acknowledged that the disability pension was a huge benefit, raising his payments by about $25,000 to $149,000 a year.

All but one of the local retirees had worked at least 20 years, qualifying them for a regular pension. Several took regular, taxed pensions while awaiting the state's decision on their disability pension requests.

Richard Capraro Jr., a Yonkers K-9 officer, was paid $87,000 in overtime in 2007. He hurt his knee and shoulder that December, in a fall on metal steps covered in black ice, and retired the following month with a regular pension of $98,000. The state comptroller initially denied his application for accidental disability, ruling that he was not permanently incapacitated. But he reapplied with additional medical evidence and won, raising his pension to a tax-free $145,000.

Former Yonkers police Capt. George Robinson was assured a six-figure pension regardless of what type of retirement he chose — his salary, $61,000 in overtime and $27,000 in other add-ons his final year guaranteed that. But Robinson applied for accidental retirement in 2006, citing a 1994 incident in which he hurt his back and leg tripping over an electric cord near his desk. According to court records, it caused him to miss weeks of work.

The application was denied and Robinson received a regular $128,000 pension for his 30 years on the job. A hearing held at his request determined that Robinson was aware of the cord and therefore was not eligible for an accidental retirement pension. He sued, and lost an appellate ruling.

Robinson ended up getting the accidental disability pension anyway, after he put in a new application claiming a different injury. His annual pension payments increased to a tax-free $145,000.

Robinson declined to discuss his medical condition, but said he loved his job and had hoped to work longer. He said he understood how some might want disability pensions taxed, but that public safety employees like him plan for retirements that best protect their families financially.

"The rules are the rules," he said. "You can't get to the bottom of the ninth and all of a sudden say the pitcher gets five balls and the batter gets two strikes."

For Wilson Gonzalez, a retired Yonkers detective, a performance-of-duty disability designation actually reduced his annual pension from $125,267 to $109,723. His regular pension had been augmented by increases in each of the four years he worked over 20 years. But he paid at least $20,000 in federal taxes while getting the higher pension. Now he pays none.

Warren Roth, a lawyer who specializes in disability retirements and has represented several of the 25 local six-figure pensioners, said the overtime should not call into question the legitimacy of the career-ending injury claims.

"What you see are injured guys who suck it up and go back to work, or work through it, and then there's an event that's the straw that breaks the camel's back and makes it that they have to retire," Roth said.

Carmen Rivera, a Greenburgh detective, retired in 2007 and has since moved to Florida. In April, Rivera threw out the first pitch on Golfer Appreciation Night at the Charlotte Stone Crabs minor league game. His golf scores are regularly reported in the local newspaper. Besides two police chiefs, Rivera is the only Greenburgh retiree with a six-figure disability pension. He got $52,000 in overtime in the year leading up to his retirement.

He did not return phone messages.

The earlier Journal News investigation found that 43 percent of Clarkstown policeretirees over the past 15 years received disability pensions — three times the state average. Clarkstown cops are the second-highest paid in the state with an average salary of $161,102, according to an August 2013 report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy.

Police Officer Joseph Orlandi worked a long career in Clarkstown –38 years -– meaning his $135,000 pension would have been the same even if he had not received a disability designation. The difference, he conceded, is that he does not pay taxes on it.

"I didn't write the laws and I didn't negotiate the contracts. If there are inequities, I didn't put them there," said Orlandi, who would not discuss his disability but said he was offended by the newspaper's investigation because the takeaway for readers might have been that he was lying about his injuries. "I don't remember seeing reporters in the operating room...I don't remember seeing reporters in the ambulance when I was carried away screaming in pain."