ALBANY – Veteran State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is under fire for allegedly mismanaging the state’s massive $291 billion common retirement fund, potentially burdening taxpayers with billions in costs.

Drew Warshaw, CEO of a housing non-profit and a candidate challenging DiNapoli in the primary, criticized the comptroller for overseeing a nearly 400% surge in fees paid to Wall Street investment managers, a figure that far exceeds the fund’s returns.

This alarming increase in expenditures was highlighted in a report Warshaw produced, in collaboration with Ryan Cummings, an economist at Stanford University. The findings were shared exclusively with The Post.

“We’re dealing with the third-largest fund manager in the nation, who has significantly underperformed his own targets for nearly two decades, all the while costing taxpayers dearly and benefiting hundreds of bankers, amid an affordability crisis,” Warshaw stated.

In his report, Warshaw proposes an “alternative approach,” utilizing data from the Common Retirement Fund’s annual financial statements to support his case.

He points out that DiNapoli has hired more active investment managers — who charge sometimes hefty fees — to seek a higher return on the funds’ investment. 

“Had the Comptroller simply paid the lower, fractional cost of investing in a diversified set of index funds instead of paying hundreds of investment managers $11.3 billion in fees, the Comptroller would have saved New York taxpayers $59.1 billion,” Warshaw states in the paper.

The roughly $60 billion price tag for taxpayers appears in payments into the fund from the state and municipalities over DiNapoli’s 18 years in office.

DiNapoli’s team said hiring more investment managers is justified, given the rise of new, diverse asset classes since he took office just before the 2008 financial crisis. They also largely brushed off Warshaw’s conclusions as flawed.

“This guy can’t even do basic math,” said DiNapoli’s campaign manager, Daniel Pereira, blasting Warshaw’s model as faulty and unreliable.

“New York’s pension plan is virtually fully funded and one of the strongest in the nation. Any plan that moves away from a well-diversified portfolio, especially one based on a shoddy report full of math mistakes, endangers the retirement security of more than a million working families. New York taxpayers deserve better,” DiNapoli’s rep added.

Warshaw stood by his approach.

DiNapoli faces an unusually contested primary for the traditionally sleepy downballot office. He’ll have to fend off Warshaw along with ex-Kansas legislator Raj Goyle and ex-Central Brooklyn congressional candidate Adem Bunkeddeko.

Health care company CEO and Wall Street investor Joseph Hernandez is running on the GOP side.