Some farmers continued to receive headage and premium payments although they had retired and were also receiving an early retirement scheme pension, according to the report.
Under the early retirement scheme, farmers must transfer their holdings and are no longer eligible for premium or headage payments. They must also cancel or transfer their herd number or numbers. However, in some cases this had not been done.
The report also says certain farmers held more than one herd number, related to separate holdings. This allowed for scope to avoid scheme restrictions.
In its reply, the Department of Agriculture acknowledged that the present system, where different methods existed for identifying herds for disease control and for subsidies, allowed for some confusion. Its accounting officer said the Department was considering setting up a data base which would help ensure that there was no overpayment.
The report also identifies the possibility of large-scale overpaying of premiums for arable land due to the overlapping of land at the mapping stage. However, it found that the actual amount of overpayment was likely to be much less than anticipated.
Another cause of overpayment was duplicate payment for goods and services, as well as of subsidies to farmers. Examples were two invoices being issued for the same order; a photocopy of an invoice being used on the assumption that an invoice had been mislaid, when it had been paid; and employees' expenses being paid twice when second claim forms were sent in the belief that the original had been lost.
However, the report points out that while there were system failures allowing for duplicate payments, the number and value made annually accounted for only a very small fraction of 1 per cent.