Tusla failed to recoup almost €1m in overpaid wages, auditors found

Salary overpayments of more than €995,000 to staff at Tusla were outstanding at the end of 2022, according to a highly critical report of the Child and Family Agency’s payroll process.

The audit report found that €996,891 in overpayments had still to be repaid by Tusla employees by December 31 that year.

Of the total, a sum of €813,177 had been outstanding for in excess of 12 months.

A total of 18 staff, including seven former employees, each owed in excess of €10,000 to Tusla with the combined amount outstanding in overpayments to be recouped from them totalling €407,463, according to auditors.

The audit report also revealed no payments were received to reduce the balance on overpayments totalling €691,227 during 2022, while more than €390,000 of overpayments related to former Tusla staff.

A circular published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform requires any overpayments to public servants for whatever reason to be repaid “as soon as possible”.

Auditors also found three Tusla employees who had received overpayments before the start of 2022 exceeding €2,500 each continued to receive additional overpayments to bring their level of overpayments to more than €49,000 by the end of the year.

The report concluded that the adequacy and effectiveness of Tusla’s internal control system for preventing overpayments of salary to staff and of its repayment plans for any overpayments were “unsatisfactory”.

It found several issues which posed a serious and substantial risk that the payroll process regarding overpayments was failing to meet its objectives.

Auditors warned that the failure to recover overpayments in the shortest time possible created the risk that they could become unrecoverable with the consequent loss of funding for Tusla.

The audit at Tusla had been conducted to provide assurance that the policies, procedures and controls relating to the payroll process and actions to prevent overpayments were adequate and effective.

Tusla’s payroll department is operated within the agency’s national finance division located in Pery Street, Limerick.

In other findings, auditors discovered the initial notification letter sent to employees detailing the reason for the overpayment and the recommended course of action had not been retained in a sample of 15 staff relating to over €94,000 in overpayments.

They also found escalation letters where staff had failed to respond to such notifications had not been followed in 13 cases regarding combined overpayments in excess of €93,000.

The audit noted Tusla had not established its own independent policies and procedures on payroll overpayments and was using the HSE’s policy, which had not been updated since December 2013.

It excluded the recoupment options of surrendering non-statutory annual leave and time-in-lieu earned for bank holidays accrued during periods of sick leave.

The report, released under Freedom of Information law, found Tusla’s payroll staff relied on a single employee to oversee the overpayment process.

There was no succession planning or contingency arrangement in place if the individual were unable to work, the report also found.

The audit identified a total of 11 key findings, including four which were classified as posing a significant risk of substantial financial loss for Tusla and which required immediate action.

In response to the audit’s findings, Tusla’s payroll manager said the agency would immediately take steps to recoup overpayments as soon as possible as well as implementing the report’s other recommendations.