Method of tax payment criticised

Ombudsman's Office: The Comptroller and Auditor General has criticised the way the Office of the Ombudsman was deducting and subsequently paying over professional service withholding tax.

The report said that the manner in which the tax was being deducted and the timing of its payment to the Revenue Commissioners "could have an adverse effect on establishing the proper charge to the Vote".

"For Government accounting purposes the gross amount of payments for professional services should be charged to the Vote account, with the deduction recorded in a suspense account pending pay-over to the Revenue Commissioners. However, the system did not charge the amount deducted for professional service withholding tax directly to the Vote", the report states.

It says that as a consequence the amount charged to the appropriation account as presented was understated by an amount of €61,814.

The Comptroller and Auditor General has also criticised accounting shortcomings by the Civil Service Commission.

The comptroller's report found that the Civil Service Commission had posted net salary payments for October 2003 of almost €430,000 to the wrong accounts. It also found that €278,000 had been recorded as due from the Exchequer instead of to the Exchequer.

The commission said human error was the cause of the misposting of the salaries.