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SINGAPORE: About 3,000 past and present public service officials will be compensated totaling about S $ 10 million after errors were found in civil service human resources (HR) records, it said the Public Service Division (PSD) on Wednesday (November 18). .
“The errors arose primarily due to human errors in data entry and coding of the IT HR and payroll systems,” said PSD. “IT systems also had inadequate error detection capabilities.”
Most of the errors, discovered during the update of the systems, are related to inaccuracies in the full-time National Service duration records of male civil servants.
“Since 2002, the Civil Service has recognized the ‘aptitude cut-off’ period for which a full-time national serviceman was eligible, as part of the recognized NS period for the purposes of determining starting salary and service benefits,” PSD said, referring to the reduction of NS liability given to military men who meet physical fitness requirements.
“However, we found that the ‘aptitude cut-off’ period was not included in the human resources records of some male officials. This in turn affected his license and other benefits. “
The rest of the errors affected retired officials, as well as officials who were on leave due to injuries in the service.
“The other errors involve inaccuracies in the IT algorithms used to calculate medical leave wages for civil servants on leave for service injuries, as well as errors in the human resources system program to calculate the payments some pensioners make. when they retire from civil service in to receive annual allowances, ”said PSD.
Regarding these inaccuracies, PSD said in response to CNA inquiries that it first suspected errors in mid-to-late 2017. PSD added that it then took time to track down the specific algorithms and formula that were in error before identifying the errors. officers who were adversely affected.
Regarding errors related to full-time National Service duration records, PSD told CNA: “We first noticed possible discrepancies in FTNS HR records sometime in 2018.”
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Following the discovery of the errors, PSD tracked and validated the sources of the errors and worked with civil service agencies to scan 102,000 records dating to the 1990s in order to recalculate the benefits.
“Through the extensive process, which took more than two years, it was discovered that around 3,000 former officers and currently serving in the civil service were not compensated as a result of the errors,” said PSD, adding that the number it represents approximately one hundred of the public servants who have served in the last 20 years.
“The Civil Service will fill the benefit shortage for current and former officers. The total compensation is around S $ 10 million ”.
Of the 3,000 undercompensated people, two-thirds will receive less than S $ 1,000 in compensation, PSD told CNA.
CLOSE TO 2,000 SUPERCOMPENSED INDIVIDUALS; TOTAL AMOUNT INVOLVED S $ 3.9 MILLION
While PSD noted that there were also people who were overcompensated, it said that overpayments resulting “from mistakes made long ago” will not be recovered.
The PSD said that around 2,000 people in the civil service were overcompensated, which implies a total amount of S $ 3.9 million.
“As the errors date back about 25 years and occurred through no fault of the official, the government will not recover these overpayments,” said a PSD spokesman in response to the CNA’s inquiries.
The civil service will notify affected people from this month until March 2021, and the deficits will be validated and paid for between now and the middle of next year.
Officers on duty will be notified by their respective HR departments, while those no longer on duty will receive notification by certified mail at their last known address, in addition to phone calls and home visits.
“As we will proactively communicate with all individuals who have received undercompensation, we would like to assure both serving and former civil servants that there is no need to rush to contact us,” said PSD. “If they have not been contacted by March 2021, they will not be adversely affected by the errors.”
As these were potential errors affecting multiple agents, PSD said it had considered whether to begin notifying affected individuals while verifying the extent of the impact, or to begin communication and rectification later, when PSD is “more secure.”
“Ultimately, we felt it was important to review the logs thoroughly before notifying people in a systematic exercise. This is so that we can better appreciate the extent of the workforce that is materially affected. Additionally, friends or colleagues of people who were negatively affected and reported may also wonder if they are affected, and we will be in a better position to address their concerns, ”said PSD.
PSD added that it will offset the deficit with interest to make up for the time lapse.
Mr. Loh Khum Yean, PSD Permanent Secretary, apologized for the errors on behalf of the public service.
“The Public Service deeply regrets the errors and inconveniences caused. We will do our best to reach out to each negatively affected individual to apologize for the error, explain the situation and correct the discrepancy, ”he said.
“We have rectified the system programming and built-in error detection capabilities to pinpoint potential errors and ensure that such inaccuracies are not repeated.”
