SENATOR JOHN FAULKNER
Minister for Defence
Friday, 22 January 2010
002/2010
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN ALLOWANCE
OVERPAYMENT
Defence Minister Senator John Faulkner today said he had been advised that
his department had identified an error in the payment of allowances affecting
63 personnel.
The personnel, who had recently returned from overseas, were accidentally
overpaid in their entitlements to International Campaign Allowance. The
overpayment does not relate to soldier’s fortnightly regular pay. Individual
overpayments ranged from $2,000 up to $9,000.
“I appreciate the fact that the overpayment was drawn to my attention by one
of those affected,” Senator Faulkner said.
This overpayment was then confirmed through the process of pay comparison
reports for pay day Thursday 21 January 2010. Defence is taking active steps
to contact all individuals concerned.
Apart from sending letters of notification, the officers and soldiers affected by
this overpayment are being contacted and informed of their individual debt
amount. Defence advises most affected personnel have already been notified,
with efforts continuing to contact those away on leave.
Defence is offering all personnel a variety of options for managing repayments
to avoid unfairly burdening families.
The cause of the overpayment was a manual input error where information
was not accurately loaded into the pay system.
“This pay error is regrettable. Defence has already taken a number of
measures to solve other payment and allowance problems. Defence moved
last year to upgrade the Human Resources and Payroll system used to
administer permanent and reserve military and civilian workforce through a
comprehensive technical refresh. Defence is also moving as a priority to
replace the personnel ICT system through Joint Project 2080,” Senator
Faulkner said.
Media contacts:
Colin Campbell (John Faulkner):
02 6277 7800 or 0407 787 181
Defence Media Liaison:
02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
NEWS 
