Fat-fingered worker “lost” council £9 million due to typing in wrong bank account number
A FAT-fingered council worker “lost” £9million by typing in the wrong bank account number.
The huge sum went missing for two days, a report reveals.
Panicked chiefs at Hertfordshire county council, which manages an annual £800million budget, lost out on £300 interest as a result of the blunder.
An audit committee report said the cash was to be transferred back to the council on August 7 after a short-term investment in a money market fund.
But a staff member tasked with typing in council bank details got two digits wrong. As a result it was returned to the fund and only arrived back on August 9.
Councillors heard a second worker should have signed off the details.
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Due to the “serious nature of the failure”, an internal review was conducted.
Audit committee chairman Frances Button said any error was “regrettable”.
One taxpayer, a bricklayer from Hitchin, said: “I reckon the person had fat fingers and pressed the wrong keys — how else could you explain such a big mistake?”