Amsterdam accidentally pays out extra €600k in benefits

Errors made by the Municipality of Amsterdam has resulted in 580 thousand euros too much being paid out to businesses and citizens so far this year. This is the result of benefits and invoices accidentally being paid twice. According to broadcaster NOS, citizens twice received the same school pupil benefit or PC-contribution and 69 suppliers received their payments twice. This involved a total of 830 thousand euros, 580 thousand of which went to individuals and businesses, the rest were internal payments in the municipality. The city has already recovered more than 200 thousand euros and managed to make arrangement with many of the suppliers involved. The municipality expects that it will eventually be able to recover 95 to 100 percent of the double payments. The municipality's audit department told the broadcaster that this was the result of a combination of human error and unclear instructions. This is not the first time that the municipality has blundered with payments. Late in 2013 the municipal tax office came into disrepute when it accidentally paid out 188 million euro in living expenses contribution to more than 9 thousand people, while it should have been a total of 1.8 million euro. A year later, the tax service forgot to pay a portion of the waste levy back to 3,822 households. This involved 430 thousand euros. A report by the Amsterdam municipality's civil service Resources and Control in November last year stated that the municipality's financial management lacks leadership, is working from an ‘ivory tower’, works only on a short term agenda and has a flawed and outdated automation. A more recent risk assessment commissioned by the municipality in July concluded that Amsterdam might be placed under State guardianship if the city does not submit proper annual financial statements for 2015, something the report expresses concern over. he picture in this report confirms that the financial statements will be a difficult job”, the report stated. “Currently there is concern at all levels of the organization.”