Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Number of Instances Involving Overpayment to Ministry of Home Affairs Staff Made Through VITAL in the Past Three Years

Question:

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask 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.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1. 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.

2. 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 (MHA) 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.

3. 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.