When is $1 million of taxpayer money immaterial?
When it's accidentally paid out to apprentices, according to the Australian National Audit Office.
An audit of an apprenticeship incentives program, released on Thursday, has found poor record-keeping led to $970,000 in incorrect payments.
Of this, $830,000 worth were overpayments, while the rest were underpayments resulting from assessment errors.
But the audit notes "the incorrect payments identified are financially immaterial" since they account for less than one per cent of the total amount spent on the program between July 2012 and June 2014.
The audit examined 920,000 payment records from that period, worth about $1.2 billion, and found just 960 were wrong.
Nevertheless, it suggests the program could benefit from better checks on its data.
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