| Public service allowance overpayments to be halted | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Thursday, 03 March 2011 12:41 | |||
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Some public employees have been getting too much money for allowances in addition to their salaries because of “lax controls,” says interim government CEO Mark Capes. “We’ve been hemorrhaging money to people who shouldn’t have been receiving it, and we have to fix that,” Capes said. “I hope people will understand.” The interim government has been reviewing all aspects of the public service, which nearly doubled in size from fewer than 1,500 in 2002 to nearly 3,000 in 2008. Public service payroll consumes more than half the country’s annual budget. “What we found on scrutiny of the payroll is that there have been a number of areas where there have been very lax controls on things like allowances and so on where there have been significant overpayments,” Capes said. When those overpayments are corrected, public servants affected will be given “adequate notice,” Capes said. “That will mean some difficult decisions, but we can’t allow the errors to continue. That’s going to be unpopular with some people where allowances have been overpaid for a long time, and in some areas the overpayments have been very significant.” The government is in the process of requiring all public servants to pick up their paychecks in person with proper identification “to ensure that both waged employee personnel records and their payment details are accurate and up-to-date.” Capes is in charge of right sizing the public service to reduce cost and increase efficiency as part of the interim government’s target of reducing the cost of the public service by 25 percent by 2012-13. Over the past year, public servants have been hit with several changes affecting their pocketbooks. In March 2010, the interim government changed the law that allowed public service employees to import vehicles for half the normal duty rate. The exemption was capped so that full duty must be paid on the vehicle’s value exceeding $25,000. If the vehicle is sold within three years, full duty must be paid. Then in May, all public service employees had their paychecks reduced by 10 percent. The government has also been reviewing the payment of pensions and gratuities, and will be taking the matter up with the Civil Service Association soon, Capes said.
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