About half of the civil servants employed by the state have been mistakenly paid their half-month year-end bonus twice through a banking error.
State secretary Datuk Farizan Darus said the “double bonus” was erroneously paid out to 3,054 civil servants.
He said the bank had intended to pay the salary for December last Monday and the bonus the following day.
“However, the state government felt it was better to pay everything on Monday and instructed the bank to do so.
“The bank forgot to withdraw the previous payment instructions, which led to the double payout,” he said yesterday.
Farizan said the problem was realised on Tuesday when word got out to civil servants from several state agencies who did not receive the “double bonus”.
“They asked to be paid twice as well, as they did not know it was a mistake,” he said.
Farizan said the bank was working on debiting the extra bonus from the civil servants' bank accounts.
He said that at the time of the press conference, 233 accounts involving a sum of RM164,000 remained to be sorted and the bank expected to resolve the matter soon.
Farizan said the state government urged those who withdrew the extra bonus to co-operate with the bank.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had announced last month that the state government would pay out a half-month bonus with minimum payment of RM800 for state civil servants this year.
Civil servants were also paid a bonus of half-month salary with minimum payment of RM600 in conjunction with the Hari Raya celebration in August.
