More than £10,000 was overpaid to employees at the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) during its first two months of operation, it has emerged.
Documents seen by Personnel Today show that 29 workers were overpaid in the policing body’s first month of operation (April), amounting to £6,286 overspent, while five were overpaid in May, totalling £4,899.
1,147 staff were on the NPIA payroll in April, falling to 1,125 in May. Earlier this week, Personneltoday.com exclusively revealed that an average of three employees have been leaving the NPIA per week since its launch.
The NPIA was created through the merger of the Police IT Organisation and training body Centrex. It aimed to improve police technology and training for all 43 forces in England and Wales.
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The merger was a result of the Gershon efficiency review, which aimed to streamline public services, cut Civil Service jobs, and reduce costs to the taxpayer.
Yet the documents revealed that despite already employing more than 700 contractors at the time of the merger, a further 22 contractors had been newly recruited to the agency between April and June – some of whom were being paid a £750 day rate.
