A computer glitch is giving almost 500 farmers a pain in the neck and the pocketbook.
While some farmers who took part in the Canadian Wheat Board’s Early Payment Option, or EPO, program in the 2004-05 crop year are receiving extra payments because the glitch underpaid them, another 486 must reimburse $1.1 million to the program.
Only those who received $250 or more than they should have will have to repay the money. The repayment will be deducted from other board payments to the affected farmers, including one individual who owes about $34,000.
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According to board spokesperson Maureen Fitzhenry, the payment problems were caused by a computer software mistake in which “incorrect adjustments were made for previous EPO payments that weren’t fully deducted from the earlier payments.”
The software was originally designed for operating pool accounts and didn’t correctly identify EPO payments and didn’t calculate final payments correctly.
Unfortunately for farmers, some of the erroneous payments will force them to go back and amend their taxes and farm subsidy claims. All farmers affected by the glitch have been contacted by mail.
Irritation was obvious in the Agri-ville.com website’s chat room, in which a number of farmers complained about the situation.
“Yeah, what if I have a CAIS claim for 2005, is this income? What about the new options program, do I refile tax? This is a pain in the #%’#,” wrote one farmer.
Fitzhenry said the board has concluded that some farmers will have to refile statements, but it will pay for the cost of doing this.
“The wheat board will reimburse the documented costs for correcting this error,” said Fitzhenry.
“So if any farmers incur costs because they have to file for an adjustment to the tax return, if they send us a copy of the bill along with the statement that documents the overpayment to the account, we’ll reimburse all those.”
Another chatterer on the Agri-ville site wondered why the board doesn’t just swallow the overpayment because it was its error.
“The CWB is arrogant (to) ask for this money back after they made a mistake,” the chatterer said.
“Only a monopoly could demand the funds back.”
But Fitzhenry said the board has both a legal and moral obligation to correct the accounts between the underpaid and the overpaid.
“Whose money is it? This is all farmers’ money. You have to have financial integrity of your pool accounts. It’s a requirement of law,” she said.
“To honour the payment to other farmers who participated in EPO contracts, we have to collect the overpayments.”
