Under the fringe benefits provisions (section 1(b)(2) of the Act)
the amount of contributions for fringe benefits must be made to a
trustee or to a third person irrevocably. The ``third person'' must be
one who is not affiliated with the contractor or subcontractor. The
trustee must assume the usual fiduciary responsibilities imposed upon
trustees by applicable law. The trust or fund must be set up in such a
way that in no event will the contractor or subcontractor be able to
recapture any of the contributions paid in or any way divert the funds
to his own use or benefit. Although contributions made to a trustee or
third person pursuant to a benefit plan must be irrevocably made, this
does not prevent return to the contractor or subcontractor of sums which
he had paid in excess of the contributions actually called for by the
plan, as where such excess payments result from error or from the
necessity of making payments to cover the estimated cost of
contributions at a time when the exact amount of the necessary
contributions under the plan is not yet ascertained. For example, a
benefit plan may provide for definite insurance benefits for employees
in the event of the happening of a specified contingency such as death,
sickness, accident, etc., and may provide that the cost of such definite
benefits, either in full or any balance in excess of specified employee
contributions, will be borne by the contractor or subcontractor. In such
a case the return by the insurance company to the contractor or
subcontractor of sums paid by him in excess of the amount required to
provide the benefits which, under the plan, are to be provided through
contributions by the contractor or subcontractor, will not be deemed a
recapture or diversion by the employer of contributions made pursuant to
the plan. (See Report of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public
Welfare, S. Rep. No. 963, 88th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 5.)
