Computer Overpaid Students

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30389, 13 March 1964, Page 13

Computer Overpaid Students

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, March 12. A Quebec Government electronic computer paid out 1,688,000 dollars in unauthorised cheques to Quebec students after it had been fed confused data, “The Times” reported. Most of the money was recovered, but 275,000 dollars was an unexpected windfall to a number of students. The story was revealed by the Provincial Auditor (Mr J. A. Vezina) to the public

accounts committee of the Quebec Legislature yesterday. Mr Vezina said there was not much hope to getting the money back. He told of confusion and mistakes in the processing of applications for Government scholarships- As a result about 2000 students received up to five or six times the amount of money to which they were entitled. Mr Vezina said many of the cards fed to the data processing machine contained errors, “The Times” reported. When this infor-

mation was fed into the computer the machine acted accordingly and “no doubt students were delighted to find themselves receiving three, or even six cheques from the Government when they should only have been receiving one.” When the Quebec Youth Department found out what was happening it tried to stop the cheques, but the damage was done. The province distributes about 16 million dollars in scholarships annually to about 40,000 students.