When National Health Laboratory Service employees in late 2015 noticed that money had been deposited into their accounts, they thought Christmas had come early.
Little did they know they would have to pay back their “bonuses” two years later.
The affected employees, who are mostly from the NHLS office in Limpopo, said they only received letters at the end of last year notifying them that the institution was recouping the funds.
The amounts of money that was deposited on November 26 2015 differed depending on the employee’s salary scale. Some received around R10,000 while others received less or slightly more.
In a letter sent in September 2017, NHLS acting CEO Mpho Mphelo said there had been some “miscalculations” when money was paid into the employees’ bank accounts in 2015. On January 16 the employees were again sent letters alerting them that the first batch of debits will go off that same month.
NHLS spokesperson Tebogo Seate said the institution alerted the employees to the error in April 2016. He would not expand on how the mistake happened.
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