A public servant working in the Northern Territory was overpaid almost $500K in one fell swoop after a colossal stuff-up in the state’s Department of Corporate and Information Services.
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The stuff-up? Well, as the ABC writes, someone put the decimal point for a payment of $4921.76 in the wrong place, so this very lucky duck (take the money and run, dude, take the money and run), ended up with a cool $492,176 in his bank account.
Our story of one guy’s fortune – and we presume subsequent disappointment when his boss politely requested he pay the $$ back (shouldn’t this be some kind of finders/receivers keepers thing?) – comes directly from a report released by the NT auditor-general’s office.
The auditor-general identified a whoppin’ 743 salary overpayments made by NT gov departments between July 2017 and January 2018, worth more than $1.6 million – $767K of which hasn’t been paid back. The hero of this here yarn though did the right thing, I guess, and repaid the money four weeks later, the auditor-general writing that they would’ve done it sooner if they didn’t live in a remote area.
The Department of Corporate and Information Services said that overpayments such as those represent about 0.2% of their total 1.2 million payroll transactions annually.
The report even went so far as to make a list of the most-overpaid government departments, presumably excluding our mate up there, who really missed his opportunity to buy an island somewhere: #1: the Top End Health Service with $452,754; #2: the Department of Education with $376,749; and #3 the NT Police Fire and Emergency Services with $157,114. If you work for any of those: throughly check your bank accounts – it might go some way to explaining why you’ve been able to afford so many Friday schooners lately.
Overall, in the words of the auditor-general: “My review of the data related to salary overpayments highlights the necessity for the entity to be vigilant at all times.”
Friends, stay vigilant.
