Highland Council officers quizzed on £600,000 overpayments made to former staff

Councillors have questioned Highland council officers on how payroll overpayments have been allowed to stretch to over £600,000.

A report outlining the extent of the overpayments was put in front of councillors at an audit committee.

Just over £614,092 in payroll overpayments is looking to be recovered.

Councillors were told that a quarter of the overpayments had now been recovered, with “late notification” of changes to the payroll team identified as the main culprit.

The council also changed financial systems in April, which caused issues in keeping “consistent data” on the overpayment situation, but the overall overpayment rate was reduced.

A council officer said: “We do seek to fully recover all overpayment sums and we follow a consistent process for staff and former staff members.”

Officers assured affected council staff they would be given the option of a repayment plan before any salary deductions would be made.

They added: “In the cases of former employees, failure to pay will go through the standard debt recovery process… and so will ultimately result in court action.”

Several councillors shared their thoughts during the proceedings, including those who are not members of the audit committee.

Councillor Jan McEwan said: “At the end of the day… it is fraud and it should be recovered.

“It should be each individual’s responsibility if they’ve got an overpayment to react quite quickly.

“It’s not pennies or pounds we are talking about; it’s a lot of money, and they’ve been overpaid.”

Councillor Sarah Atkin said: “If there’s overpayment and somebody owes us money, I think we have an absolute duty to get that money back… for the people who do the right thing.

“It sends a really bad message if we’re not really committed to it.”

Councillor Ruraidh Stewart raised concerns some individuals felt intimidated in the ways overpayment collection is being conducted.

He said: “This is an area of great concern. These are people that work for us or have worked for us.

“I would perhaps ask the officers reflect on how to contact staff in a more person-centred way to avoid these feelings of intimidation.”

Chief Executive Officer for Communities and Place Allan Gunn responded to some of the concerns raised by councillors.

Mr Gunn explained that 99.89% of payments made are accurate and these overpayments are a small amount of the total payroll transactions.

He said: “Our process does not include intimidation of people. Our process includes recovering money that customers are due to pay us.

“There’s nothing that I’ve seen to suggest of intimidation.”

“The reality is when something’s been paid, getting 100% recovery is always very very difficult, but that remains our ambition.”

Councillor Patrick Logue asked if people who did come forward could have “confidence” that they would be dealt with “appropriately.”

Mr Gunn replied that he could not comment on individual cases but said there was “a lot greater assurance than what we had maybe six months ago when the last audit was done.”

An additional report will be prepared for June next year with an update on the status of overpayments.