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Ministry of Finance will return to employees more than $124,000 overcharged by mistake |
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 By the A.M. Costa Rica
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The Ministry of Finance confirmed that during this week, it will return the amounts deducted from the salaries of public employees that were taken by mistake. This overcharge error was registered for payment of a membership in the Agricultural Production Cooperative. The total amount overcharged to 12,856 employees was 75.8 million colones (about $124,588). According to the Minister, during the first days of February, the treasury department began collecting a percentage of the salary of public employees as the payment of the memberships to the Cooperativa de Producción Agropecuaria, to which supposedly the employees had subscribed. However, in response to employee complaints about the deductions, the ministry said it realized that no employee had joined the cooperative and the deductions were an error. According to Nogui Acosta, interim minister of Finance, "the money has not been transferred to the cooperative yet. The employees can be certain that the sum will be reimbursed and that there will be no new deduction for this concept. " According to the ministry, a member of the cooperative made a formal request to the National Treasury which acknowledged the error and requested the government return the amount deducted from the salaries of the 12,856 employees. According to the ministry, there is an agreement between the Department of the Treasury, which is in charge of paying salary to public employees, and the cooperative. In this agreement the automatic deduction of salaries is authorized by the persons who accept the membership. But in this case, none of the more than 12,000 employees had requested to be members. "In view of this experience, for the legitimacy that the Treasury has to review the documentation on deductions of wages, I am requested to increase the rigorous analysis of the agreements with the 173 entities that request this service every month," said Acosta. |
 A.M. Costa Rica wire services photo The total amount overcharged to employees was about $124,588. According to Mauricio Arroyo, director of National Treasury, "the deductions are made based on the payrolls that are delivered monthly by the deducting entities, some with minimum records of one line and others of large volume that exceed 200,000 records. Internally, we apply a procedure that includes both the Legal Advice Department and the Payment Management Department, where there are officials who review the agreements, others who validate the agreements and others who apply the deduction." According to the Ministry of Finance, the National Treasury applies on average more than 1 million automatic deductions on the salaries of public employees every month. In view of the error, the ministry will conduct an internal investigation to identify the person who generated those deductions without authorization from the employees. ---- Should the ministry investigate who allowed access to the cooperative to the names and accounts of 12 thousand public employees? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com *Link to reach the place on map. |
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