Australian Signals Directorate caught up in staff super bungle

The Australian Signals Directorate was forced to issue an apology to its staff after detecting an accounting error that saw hundreds of employees overpaid millions in super fund contributions.

Australian Cyber Security Centre at the Australian Signals Directorate in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

One of the country’s leading intelligence agencies has overpaid staff up to $30,000 each because of a longstanding accounting error in which hundreds of ­employees were paid millions of dollars in super fund contributions to which they were not entitled.

The Australian Signals Directorate, the federal agency responsible for cyber security and foreign intelligence, was first alerted to the payment error early last year when the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation found it had overpaid employee super contributions.

The Australian understands the ASD has been engaged in protracted negotiations with the CSC in a bid to retrieve the money, but both agencies have refused to provide precise figures of the overpayment and how many employees it affected, insisting the issue had now been resolved.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the process, who spoke to The Australian on condition of anonymity, said the error affected hundreds of employees and ­involved millions of dollars in overpayments.

It’s understood some individuals were overpaid up to $30,000, while others who received up to $1500 were initially told they could keep the money because the costs of recouping it exceeded its worth. At one point during the agency’s negotiations with the CSC, sources say staff were told they could keep the money. It later ­offered to pay for external financial assistance to resolve issues caused to individuals’ super funds.

The ASD was forced to issue an apology to affected staff.

The Australian understands the overpayments were triggered when the ASD became a statutory agency in July 2018, with employees moving from the Department of Defence to the ASD under an employment determination codified in the Intelligence Services Amendment Bill.

It was later established the move triggered a legal requirement for the agency to use a different method to calculate superannuation that satisfied rules set out in its employment contract as well as the Public Sector Superannuation Accumulation Plan.

An agency spokesman said a matter affecting employees had since been resolved but would not comment on how the discrepancy had been settled or when super overpayments were first detected.

“ASD consulted with the ­Department of Defence and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation in investigating this matter,” the spokesman said. “The ASD has taken this issue ­seriously in terms of its fiscal and contractual responsibilities, and duty of care to employees.”

The intelligence agency received the largest investment in its history in the 2022-23 federal budget, with $9.9bn to be injected over the next decade.