No guarantee Highland Council will not overpay staff again despite £1.2m bill due to ‘complexities’ of paying the workforce of 10,000
The leader of Highland Council said there is no guarantee that the local authority will not overpay staff in the future after it was revealed that it overpaid staff - past and present - by £1.2 million.
It is the latest in a series of errors that have hit the council’s reputation for financial management is yet to recover after we revealed hundreds of former staff continued to be paid months after leaving the employ of the local authority.
It took another hit after former staff spoke out about the methods used by officials to regain some of the cash they overpaid were described as intending to “intimidate” them.
The overpayments between April 1 2022 and the end of September 2024 were revealed following a question by Lib Dem opposition leader Alasdair Christie who tabled a question on the issue.
After he followed up as to whether Council leader Raymond Bremner sought assurances that this would not happen again, he was told that the size of the workforce prevented a promise on the issue.
Cllr Bremner said: “In terms of payments to 10,000 staff and the challenges we face in undertaking that then I am sure that is something we are happy to look”.
Most of that has since been recovered but £396,000 – likely to stem from former staff – is yet to be returned to the cash-strapped local authority.
Cllr Christie originally asked for a “list of all current and past employees who have had a salary overpayment”, how much was overpaid and what the outstanding balance is.
The response stated: “Salary Overpayments for the period 1 April 22 to 30 September 24 were £1.246 million. The balance outstanding is £396,000.
