Biologist overpaid by $25,000 is having trouble giving it back

Problem getting more complicated with each pay increase and tax return he files

Jérôme Marty says he’s more fortunate than some of the victims of the federal government’s Phoenix pay system.

The former biologist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada wasn’t shortchanged on his paycheque. Just the opposite, in fact. He calculates the federal government has paid him about $25,000 too much.

It hasn’t been easy giving the money back, though. More than a year after the problem cropped up, Marty is still trying to resolve both the overpayment and the ripple effect it has had on his income taxes and pension.

There’s no end in sight. Marty says the Phoenix pay fiasco has shattered his image of the federal government as a dependable organization. “It’s a place where people feel secure. It doesn’t make (these) big mistakes.”

“I had this image that we were asked to provide the best service to all Canadians, and in return we, the employees, would be given the recognition we deserve.”

Or at least a paycheque for the correct amount.

Marty left a term position as a science adviser with the government in November 2016. His paycheque, however, kept coming. Marty immediately told his former department about the error. But the money kept flowing until February 2017.

“I said, ‘Stop paying me.’ But they couldn’t stop it. It’s incredible. These are public dollars.”

He is far from unique. The auditor general of Canada found that more federal public servants were overpaid than underpaid because of problems with Phoenix.

At this point, Marty is not even sure how much he owes. It’s around $25,000, give or take $5,000. Marty says he’s received five different estimates from various government officials he’s dealt with over the past 16 months.

He makes regular calls to the Phoenix pay centre in Miramichi, N.B., and speaks to the “ticket takers” who answer the phones and record the problems.

“I really feel sorry for the people dealing with these files and taking all the difficult calls, people very mad and upset.”

Employees at Miramichi and within his old department are trying their best, he says. “Unfortunately, they ’ve been given the keys of a car that doesn’t have the right engine to go up the mountain.”

Marty says it’s difficult to determine who is in charge of investigating his file and impossible to speak to them. Emails he’s received from Miramichi are signed by various people but contain no phone numbers.

And now income tax filing time is approaching again. The government warned public servants who had been overpaid in 2017 they had to report the matter by Jan. 19 or face the prospect of paying back the gross rather than the net amount — in effect being asked to return more than they had been paid.

That included public servants such as Marty, who had already reported overpayments. Marty dutifully placed another call to Miramichi on Jan. 16 to report his overpayment again.

“The answer I got was, ‘Oh, no, you owe us zero dollars.’ That is when I decided, ‘This is just too much.’ ”

His overpayment straddled two calendar years.

Marty filed his 2016 taxes using a T4 with the incorrect salary, which means that the taxes he paid and other deductions are all incorrect, too.

He expects to have to do the same for his 2017 tax return unless the problem is solved.

He’ll have to redo both tax returns.

The overpayment also affects his pension. As a term employee who worked at the federal government for less than two years, Marty was given back the amount he paid into the pension plan, but that will have to be adjusted based on his correct pay. That, in turn, affected the contribution room he has for a RRSP.

The calculation to determine how much he owes the government also has to take into account overtime and a retroactive pay increase Marty is entitled to after a new collective agreement was signed.

The latest communication Marty received said the government would let him know how much

I really feel sorry for the people dealing with thesefilesand taking all the difficult calls, people very mad and upset.

he owes, and give him options for repaying it.

“The faster I can repay it the better I will feel,” Marty says. However, he won’t accept the government’s word at face value.

He has carefully logged each phone call to Miramichi in a book he keeps for the purpose. He will apply the same methodical rigour to making sure the repayment amount is correct.

“I want to see the calculations, to make sure it’s correct.”

Marty has another job now, but the Phoenix problems are always a nagging worry. “It’s like a little nail that is always there ... each time I receive a communication it all comes back.

“It’s just draining, when my energy could be spent on much more interesting matters.

“I don’t know when it will end. I have no idea.”