The final report on the town's Health Insurance Trust Fund echoed what preliminary findings suggested in December: The trust has a $2.4 million surplus.

The report, presented to Selectmen Tuesday night by James Powers of the accounting firm Powers and Sullivan, was commissioned after an earlier analysis of the fund suggested that the town might owe employees as much as $1.9 million for overpayment of health insurance premiums.

Powers said his firm's work indicated that, during the four years after Wareham switched to a "self-insurance" plan in 2004, town employees contributed 25.1 percent of the cost while the town contributed 74.9 percent. The split is supposed to be 25/75.

Under a self-insurance plan, the town and employees pay premiums into the town's trust fund. All health claims are paid from the trust fund, with insurance companies involved only in claims processing. Unlike with a traditional insurance plan, the town saves money if claims cost less than expected.

The earlier audit done by Claude Boudwin, LLC at the request of the School Committee determined that employees were owed the $1.9 million. Powers said he took a closer look at the numbers and compared his findings with the first audit. In the first audit, town contributions were "significantly understated" and employee contributions were "significantly overstated," according to Powers' report.

"What had been done in the past is that there was really no [accounting] procedure in place to do a matching 75/25" contribution, Powers said. As a result, employees contributed $45,465 more than they should have over the four-year period.

"In order to correct that, the adjustment to the premium in the future would need to be made in the amount of $45,465," Powers said.

The Powers and Sullivan analysis went through June 30, 2008. Powers said he and Town Accountant Elizabeth Zaleski should be able to close the fiscal year 2009 books by the end of this week. He said the $45,465 overpayment by employees will likely increase to $100,000 after the 2009 numbers are reviewed. They will then look into the fiscal year 2010 numbers.

Powers said there is nothing wrong with having a surplus "in a fund that has extreme volatility to it." He said the town will just need to address the excess employee contributions and adjust accounting practices. The town will also need to determine exactly how much to keep in reserves.

Previous town employees will not be refunded for excess contributions and they would not be billed in the event that there was a deficit, Powers said.

The analysis cost $30,000. "[It] may seem like an expensive investment, but the way I view this, this community just saved $4 million dollars," Board of Selectmen Chairman Bruce Sauvageau said. "A $2 million dollar mistake that we didn't make and ... in excess of [a] $2 million dollar surplus, which is a good problem to have."