Over half of payroll overpayments by Tusla lack agreement for repayment of money owed
Seán McCárthaigh
More than half of payroll overpayments to Tusla staff lacked any agreement for the recoupment of money owed to the Child and Family Agency, according to the findings of an internal audit.
An audit report carried out on the management of overpayments by Tusla found no repayments were received in 2024 from any of 14 out of 25 sample cases examined, where there was no evidence of any repayment plan.
There was also no evidence that any of the cases were escalated to management for a decision on whether debt recovery proceedings should be initiated.
The findings are contained in a highly critical report, which concluded that the adequacy and effectiveness of Tusla’s internal control systems relating to processing payroll overpayments were “unsatisfactory.”
Tusla explained that 12 individuals were no longer working with the agency, while the other two are not in receipt of pay.
It also claimed that consideration of legal recourse had been included on a new Tulsa financial regulation concerning payroll overpayments.
The audit report, which was released under freedom of information legislation, said its findings meant there was a serious and substantial risk the system would fail to meet its objective.
It issued a total of nine recommendations based on its findings, including three which were made to address “a significant risk of substantial financial loss” which required immediate action.
Tusla stated that it is its policy to recover outstanding payments “as expeditiously as possible” if any employee receives an overpayment, although every effort is made to avoid such an occurrence.
The report noted that the HSE is responsible for managing Tusla’s payroll overpayments process under a service level agreement.
It found that nine out of the 25 sample overpayment cases contained discrepancies between Tusla records and the HSE’s Pay-Related Overpayments Register.
Multiple inaccuracies were also identified in the same register, including items marked as repaying, although no repayments were recorded during 2024, while dates of notification letters were either missing, incomplete or inaccurate.
The report revealed that eight cases were not identified promptly, with six cases taking a minimum of 81 days to discover the overpayment, including two which took more than 1,300 days to realise.
Unlike some audits on Tusla from previous years, the latest report provides no figure on the scale of payroll overpayments within the agency.
An audit published two years ago found the level of unrepaid overpayments reached almost €1 million in 2022, with the vast majority of the sum being outstanding for over 12 months.
The latest audit also revealed that no letters were sent in 2024 to individuals or their legal representatives in ten sample cases with long outstanding balances, despite the lack of repayments during that year.
Despite the adverse findings, the report said Tusla management had demonstrated a strong and ongoing commitment to improving the process.
“Significant efforts have been made, including the provision of continuous training to key stakeholders across Tusla regions, aimed at upskilling staff and sharing lessons learned,” it added.
The audit also noted that a new financial regulation for payroll overpayments was approved last year, with a working group established to address issues and facilitate the recoupment of such monies.
In addition, a new automated system for managing payroll, which is currently under development, is expected to significantly mitigate control gaps associated with the manual process.
