An Garda Síochána overpaid officers and civilian staff to the tune of €4.25 million over the past three years, records show. While some of the money has been paid back, the balance outstanding had risen to more than €2.8 million at the end of last year.Most cases were linked to sickness absence, with late notification of pay changes identified as a root cause, according to internal audit committee papers.One briefing note said the force had discovered cases where its overpayments unit was not notified staff had been overpaid. Another said a manual process had left “too many opportunities for errors”.The new figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show €1 million in overpayments were made to 487 gardaí last year, which equates to an average of about €2,100 per person.A further €406,000 was overpaid to 204 civilian staff, which equates to about €2,000 per head.The amount of money recouped from gardaí last year was just €549,000, with €174,000 recovered from civilian staff. The end-of-year balance of overpayments for gardaí was €2.18 million with a further €665,000 owed by civilian employees. Documents from the Garda’s audit and risk committee said about two-thirds of the cases related to illness. One report said discussions were under way to improve faster reporting of pay-affected sick leave.It said issues were identified whereby ex-members should have had pensions payments reduced when they took on roles in the public sector after retirement.“A formal report is awaited as to the impact of this,” the documents said. “It has been advised that it is likely that further overpayments will occur.”Asked about the figures, a Garda spokesman said: “There has been a dedicated focus by An Garda Síochána over the last number of years on overpayments.“This has resulted in a reduction in money being overpaid and the instances of overpayment. This focus has continued this year and will be maintained as long as it is required.”The spokesman added that advisory support was available to make “fair arrangements” for recoupment of the money involved by gardaí and civilian staff.