Pittsburgh schools’ overpayments to vendors skyrocket

(The Center Square) – Pittsburgh Public Schools overpaid its vendors by at least $500,000 in 2019 and 2021, a dramatic increase from other recent years.

According to city documents, the district states its overpayments were $573,065 in 2019, $160,628 in 2020 and $523,244 in 2021.

The district called those totals “net recovery” and has for years worked with the vendor Disbursement Review LLC to recover over payments it has made to its various vendors. Disbursement Review receives half the money it can recover as payment. The district didn’t respond to a question attempting to clarify whether the total amount of recovered funds included the 50% fee given to Disbursement Review.

Pittsburgh Public Schools School Board President Sala Udin and Disbursement Review LLC didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

The district’s overpayments ranged from $23,251 to $59,165 from 2015 to 2018, significantly less than 2019 to 2021.

School district spokeswoman Ebony Pugh gave a short explanation for the dramatic increase in overpayments, but didn’t respond to a follow-up email asking for clarifications.

“Due to the implementation of our new financial software and the delay in the conversion of historical check and invoice data, our ability to audit duplicate payments was limited in the short term,” Pugh wrote in an email. “This led to a short-term increase in duplicate payments and recoveries through Disbursement Review.”

The district’s general fund revenues were $627.1 million in 2021.