More than €250,000 paid in error to Waterford college students

Gordon Deegan

An unexpected €250,387 windfall was paid in error to over 200 students at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), accounts show.

A note attached to the educational institution's financial statements for the 20-month period to the end of April 2022 disclosed that due to an error, 203 students received a double payment from WIT totalling €250,387 on November 20th, 2020.

However, students received a follow-up email from WIT on November 23rd in order to inform them that a processing error had occurred.

The accounts state that by December 3rd, €221,363 of the €250,3867 had been recouped.

The note states that as at April 30th, 2022, €5,780 remained outstanding and this balance was provided for in full in the financial statements.

"No costs were incurred by the Institute in recouping these funds,” the note says.

The accounts say a number of "remedies" were implemented by the college following the incident, including training, restructuring and re-allocation of duties along with the introduction of new control checks.

WIT was dissolved in May 2022 and is now part of the South East Technological University (SETU).