Social welfare fraud: Thirty-six people received prison sentences for defrauding the social welfare payments system last year, according to the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG).
A total of 259 criminal prosecutions were finalised in court last year involving social welfare recipients who fraudulently received a total of more than €1 million.
Some 144 fines were issued for social welfare fraud, 43 people were given the Probation Act, 18 peope were given no penalty, while seven were bound to the peace.
There were just 16 prosecutions involving employers who sought to defraud the system. Of these, 14 were fined and two were struck out.
In total, the Department of Social Affairs estimates that in excess of €18 million was lost through fraud or suspected fraud last year.
However, overpayments by the department amounted to €36 million in the same year, almost a third more than last year.
In total, outstanding overpayments dating back several years which amount to €115 million.
The C&AG says the figures show there were shortcomings in the system for recording overpayments.
He says that other recent internal audit reports by the department highlighted discrepancies between the records maintained by scheme payment sections and local office records and central overpayments system records.
Issues that arose in these audits included:
The department's accounting officer told the C&AG that the computer system for recording overpayments and recovery details had been in place since 1987.
The officer said it was a stand-alone system and did not link with the department's other computer systems. As a result, it required a high degree of manual inputting of data, which was a time-consuming process.
The officer added that a number of initiatives had been taken recently to improve the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of the data on the current overpayments system.
The first phase of a new overpayments system is scheduled to be up and running early in 2006, according to the department.
In the meantime, unresolved cases are being examined with a view to recovering as many outstanding payments as possible.
