Government routed wages to wrong accounts

WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- A defense agency is investigating whether the Department of Defense paid more than $15 million to the wrong people, a report released in Washington said.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Service found the Defense Department may have paid more than $15 million into civilian employee accounts with invalid Social Security numbers or to people below the legal age to work. The investigation found wages of several employees were paid into a single account.

Among the invalid Social Security numbers were some with all zeros in one or more sections, investigators told CNN. The report was released July 15.

The Defense Civilian Pay System, which manages payroll for the department's 7.3 million civilian employees, paid out $148 billion in wages during a six-year period reviewed by the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General.

The investigators found $905,000 was paid to deceased employees and concluded the DCPS did not use procedures to identify deceased employees, including one who died in 1948.

The report said the department overseeing payroll is changing procedures to prevent similar problems from cropping up.