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Three Sinn Féin offices in Northern Ireland were mistakenly paid £ 10,000 to which they were not entitled to a Covid-19 emergency business support plan.
The payments were made automatically shortly after the Stormont Executive launched a small business grant scheme in March.
The money has been returned to Land and Property Services, which manages the fee payments.
The refunds are understood to have been made this week, after BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show highlighted the issue on Monday.
Sinn Féin did not apply for the grants, which were paid to 24,700 small businesses, and 452 beneficiaries were later deemed ineligible.
The first 7,000 grants, which included those for Sinn Féin offices, were automatically credited to the bank accounts of companies that paid annual fees of up to £ 15,000 by direct debit.
The guidelines for the plan stated that positions for deputies and members of the Stormont Assembly were not eligible.
In a statement, Sinn Féin said: “Three Sinn Fein offices received automatic and unsolicited payments of £ 10,000 under the Small Business Grant Program.
“Sinn Fein offices did not qualify and did not apply for the scheme and the money has been returned to LPS (Land and Property Services).”
The Department of Economics, which runs the scheme, said 70 of the 452 companies that received grants in error have returned them.
It is understood that the total paid in error was more than £ 4 million.
The DUP has criticized Sinn Féin for delaying the repayment of the £ 30,000 paid to it, and the grants are understood to have been returned this week.
Gary Middleton, an MLA at Foyle, asked Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy of Sinn Fein to explain what happened.
“Registration for the business support grant program was closed on May 20. It is unacceptable and unjustifiable that this money is now being repaid several months later,” he said.
“We still don’t know when exactly Sinn Féin representatives found out about this mistake.”
He added: “It is time for Sinn Féin to be forthright with the public about their knowledge and response to these issues.
“At a time when many companies are struggling to survive, the integrity of the public purse is of the utmost importance.”
The DUP, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, and Ulster unionists have said that none of their offices received payments.
The error may have arisen because Sinn Féin owns its own electoral offices and pays fees for them, while other parties rent their offices and the fees are paid by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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