Defence allowance overpay identified
John Faulkner
posted Friday, 22 January 2010
Defence Minister Senator John Faulkner today said he had been advised that his department had identified an error in the payment of allowances affecting 63 personnel.
The personnel, who had recently returned from overseas, were accidentally overpaid in their entitlements to International Campaign Allowance. The overpayment does not relate to soldier's fortnightly regular pay. Individual overpayments ranged from $2,000 up to $9,000.
"I appreciate the fact that the overpayment was drawn to my attention by one of those affected," Senator Faulkner said.
This overpayment was then confirmed through the process of pay comparison reports for pay day Thursday 21 January 2010. Defence is taking active steps to contact all individuals concerned.
Apart from sending letters of notification, the officers and soldiers affected by this overpayment are being contacted and informed of their individual debt amount. Defence advises most affected personnel have already been notified, with efforts continuing to contact those away on leave.
Defence is offering all personnel a variety of options for managing repayments to avoid unfairly burdening families.
The cause of the overpayment was a manual input error where information was not accurately loaded into the pay system.
"This pay error is regrettable. Defence has already taken a number of measures to solve other payment and allowance problems. Defence moved last year to upgrade the Human Resources and Payroll system used to administer permanent and reserve military and civilian workforce through a comprehensive technical refresh. Defence is also moving as a priority to replace the personnel ICT system through Joint Project 2080," Senator Faulkner said.