Extra €518,000 paid to workers due to Clare council error

AN "ADMINISTRATIVE error" by Clare County Council has cost the taxpayer €518,000 in overpayments to council road workers.

And the cash-strapped council will not be getting the money back from staff after Siptu argued the 130 outdoor staff should not pay the money back as it was a council error.

The overpayments went undetected for six years and have only come to light now in a local government auditor's report due to go before the council on Monday.

In his report, local government auditor Thomas O'Callaghan states the overpayments came to light following a review of payroll payments by the council's finance section in February of last year.

The errors, which on average resulted in each worker receiving an additional €3,984, took place between 2001 and January 2007. Mr O'Callaghan said the overpayments "arose due to an administrative error in the initial calculation of the sum payable in 2001".

Mr O'Callaghan added: "In discussions with the union concerned, senior management agreed that these overpayments would not be recovered from the employees concerned."

A spokesman for Siptu said yesterday: "It was an error on the side of the council and it would have been very disingenuous . . . to take the money back from the workers six years after the mistake was first made . . . The road workers didn't contribute to the error".

However, a spokesman for another trade union, Impact, which represents 280 clerical and administrative workers at Clare County Council, yesterday accused the council of "double standards" in writing off the €518,000.

He said: "The council adopts a very hard line with our individual members when wrong amounts have been paid and it goes through matters with a fine tooth-comb in order to recoup every cent.

"The council tried to keep this quiet for obvious reasons and it seems very unfair to us and smacks of double standards that it can write off the €518,000 and yet pursue Impact members for small individual amounts."

Clare's mayor, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind), said the council could not just take the money back from the workers. She said the period over which the error took place was too long. However, she said: "The error was picked up and the council has checks and balances in place to make sure that it won't happen again."

A member of the council's newly-formed internal audit committee, Cllr Martin Conway (FG), said: "I am glad that the money was written off and that no attempt was made to pursue the workers. Lessons must be learned from this matter."

The council finances only avoided being in the red last year due to an increase in waste being disposed of at its landfill, which resulted in an additional €1 million.

In his formal response to Mr O'Callaghan on the overpayments, county manager Alec Fleming said the overpayment was the result of a misinterpretation of the method of calculating allowances and was identified as part of the council's internal review systems.

Mr O'Callaghan said the council should seek information as to whether it can recoup the money under existing insurance policies.