Public workers overpaid €16m — three times more than thought

Public workers were overpaid almost €16m by Government departments and State agencies last year — over three times more than initially claimed.

Public Accounts Committee chairman Sean Fleming and the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed the situation just a week after the group overseeing salary and pension payments said a €4.6m overspend took place.

Speaking at the start of a PAC meeting yesterday, Mr Fleming (FF) noted that last week, the chief executive of the National Shared Services Office, Hillary Murphy Fagan, said the overpayments were limited to €4.6m.

After further examining the issue, Mr Fleming said he received a 900-page updated report from the C&AG yesterday which confirmed the figure is in fact €15.6m.

According to Mr Fleming, the new overpayments figure came about because the full overpayment level between government departments was actually €7.5m, with €8m in other overpayments relating to teachers and gardaí not included in the original rate.

Supported by the C&AG, Mr Fleming said this means the true overspend in public service salaries and pensions last year was €15.6m and not €4.6m — meaning the rate is three times higher than initially claimed.

“Everything that was said here last week was correct and accurate. It just wasn’t the full picture,” said Mr Fleming.

Comptroller Seamus McCarthy said while the fact there were overpayments was not new, the scale of it needed to be reported.

Seamus McCarthy

Independent TD Catherine Connolly said a “scoping exercise” may now be needed to examine if there are any other hidden salary or pension overpayments in the system — a view supported by Labour TD Alan Kelly.

Mr Fleming said this may take place “as a first step”, adding that he will be in contact with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform over the issue in the coming days.

The full overpayment figures include €3.2m in additional Department of Social Protection salary and pension payments; €1.8m relating to the gardaí; and up to €5.7m involving the Department of Education.

While the National Shared Services Office system is ultimately likely to save the State millions of euro every year by merging similar salary systems in various departments and State agencies, there are long-standing political concerns that new systems can result in payment errors in the wake of the HSE PPARS debacle a decade ago.