A number of federal employees who were mistakenly overpaid due to a glitch in a failed payroll software system owe the treasury a total of $559 million, say updated figures from the Department of Public Works, according to a report.
“As of October approximately 120,000 employees have an outstanding overpayment balance. The outstanding salary overpayments stand at approximately $559 million,” says a briefing note from the department, titled “Phoenix Salary Overpayments,” which was obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The government has an obligation to recover outstanding overpayments,” it said, adding that both current and former employees are now in debt to the treasury.
The briefing note gave no repayment deadlines nor estimated how much of the overpaid salaries the federal government would be able to recover because of employee deaths and resignations since the mistake, among other factors….