On April 3, 2024, Singapore's Minister for Home Affairs and Law Shanmugam answered a question from Sengkang GRC MP Ho Teng Joo about the overpay of civil servants at Parliament.
The following is a translation of the Singapore Eye based on Parliamentary sources:
Ho Dinh Ru (Sengkang GRC) asked the Minister of Home Affairs:
(a) of the number of cases of overpayment to government employees through VITAL's payroll and reimbursement services in each of the past three years;
(b) The number of people affected;
(c) What is the total amount of the overpayment;
(d) What are the minimum and maximum amounts of any overpayments found;
(e) The amount recovered to date.
Singapore's Minister for Home Affairs and Law, Shanmugam:
In the public service, staff salaries and allowances are paid in advance on the 12th of each month. Overpayment generally occurs when an employee does not work full-time for one month; It may also occur when a staff member leaves the company when he or she fails to repay the compensation for non-performance of the training and scholarship contract; Or if the medical expenses they receive at a public hospital or clinic are paid by the government and then deducted from their salary.
Any overpaid wages are deducted from the next paycheck through the Human Resources and Payroll System (HRPS). For staff who leave their jobs or are on unpaid leave, the Home Office recovers the overpaid wages through Vital. The overpayment of wages recovered by Vital over the past three years is shown in Table 1 below.
| 2021-2023 Overpayment Cases | ||
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| 603 | 1,295 | 542 |
A total of 1,985 staff members were affected, some of whom had multiple cases of overpayment. The total amount of overpaid wages was $3,466,544.43, with individual amounts ranging from $0.01 (minimum) to $238,522.41 (maximum). The maximum overpayment is the penalty payable for non-performance of the overseas scholarship contract. Approximately 70% of overpaid wages cases are less than $500. As of March 25, 2024, $1,120,907.48 has been recovered.
The following is the content of the question in English:
Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) in each of the last three years, how many instances of overpayment to the Ministry’s staff made through VITAL’s payroll and claims services have been detected; (b) how many individuals have been affected; (c) what has been the total amount of overpayments made; (d) what have been the smallest and largest amounts of overpayments detected; and (e) how much has been recovered to date.
Mr K Shanmugam: In the public sector, staff are paid a full month’s salary and allowances in advance (pay day is 12th of every month). Overpayment occurs when the staff did not work for the full month. Overpayment can also happen when exited staff have not repaid liquidated damages due to not fulfilling their training or scholarship bonds, or if they have incurred medical expenses at public hospitals or polyclinics that are billed to the Government first and to be offset from the staff’s salary later.
Any overpayment to staff is recovered from their next or subsequent payroll via the HR & Payroll System (HRPS). For staff who have left us or are on no-pay leave, the Ministry of Home Affairs engages VITAL to recover the overpayments. The number of overpayment cases for which VITAL was engaged in the last three years is in Table 1 below.
The total number of staff affected is 1,985 and some staff have more than one case of overpayment. The total amount of overpayment is $3,466,544.43, ranging from $0.01 (lowest) to $238,522.41 (highest) for each case. The highest overpayment amount is due to liquidated damages for not fulfilling the overseas scholarship bond. About 70% of the cases were overpayment involving less than $500. As of 25 March 2024, $1,120,907.48 have been recovered.
FS丨Editor
HQ丨Editor
Singapore Parliament丨Source
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