Australian gets paid 100 times more, courtesy wrong decimal
An Australian worker got paid 100 times more than his normal salary, thanks to a silly mistake by a data entry operator. Instead of A$4,921.76 (Rs. 253,788), he got paid A$492,176 (Rs. 25,382,792) due to wrong placement of a decimal point. However, the suddenly rich man chose to listen to his conscience and returned the extra sum.
Incorrect data entry, failure to deal with a system-generated alert
The mistake was pointed out by the auditor-general of Northern Territory, a federal territory famed for its Outback desert landscapes. Apart from incorrect data entry, the auditor-general's report said "the failure to deal with a system-generated alert," added to the issue. Further, the repayment was done a month later, since the man stays in a remote area and had to travel to the bank.
'Overpayment just 0.2% of 1.2M payroll transactions processed annually'
The auditor-general said: "My review of the data related to salary overpayments highlights the necessity for the entity to be vigilant." The Department of Corporate and Information Services, in its reply, said overpayment represents about 0.2% of the total 1.2 million payroll transactions processed annually.
Overpayment an irritating trend of the territory, notes report
It seems overpayment is a trend in the territory, as between July-2017 and January-2018, it was done 743 times! Out of that, A$767,000 (Rs. 3cr) has been returned, noted the report. Among the departments, The Top End Health Service, The Department of Education and the NT Police Fire and Emergency Services report maximum overpayment. Several system enhancements are in place, but to no avail.
