While many federal public servants are facing problems getting their paycheques, thousands more have reportedly had the opposite problem: getting paid too much.

According to a report by CBC, roughly 26,000 public servants were overpaid by almost $70 million, and the government has only recovered about a third of that money. A report in the Ottawa Citizen in December came to a similar conclusion: that more than 20,000 public servants were overpaid by about $56 million as of October.

Public Services and Procurement Minister Judy Foote wouldn’t tell reporters Tuesday why the government didn’t seem to know how much had been overpaid. “We will know how much money has been overpaid when we get to dealing with those cases,” she said.

“Our priority has been on making sure that those who were not getting paid for work performed get paid for work performed, because we want to make sure that any hardship cases out there are dealt with.” Tweet This

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The problems stem from the government’s new pay administration system, called Phoenix, which has seen thousands of public servants paid incorrectly – too little, or in some cases, too much – since it was implemented in February 2016. The government identified a backlog of about 82,000 cases in July 2016.

Marie Lemay, deputy minister at Public Services and Government Procurement Canada, said there were still 7,000 backlogged cases as of Jan. 25. Another update is expected Wednesday.

READ MORE: Phoenix pay troubles – how did we get here?

It’s a problem that’s attracted the attention of the federal auditor general. In November, the Auditor General of Canada said that his office has begun the “planning phase” of a performance audit of the government pay system.

“We cannot provide further information on the scope of work while the audit is ongoing,” said spokesperson Celine Bissonnette on Tuesday.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, one of the major public service unions, said that overpayment can be a hardship for some public servants.

“People were reporting that [they were being overpaid] for months and months, and then finally sometime in November the government starts to panic and starts clawing back 100 per cent of their paychque or three paycheques right before Christmas,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau. “That was an absolute fiasco.”

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Many public servants can’t even tell if they’re being overpaid or by how much, she said. And she believes this will lead to problems at tax time.

READ MORE: Phoenix employees to face a new hurdle: tax season

That’s one of the big worries for many public servants – that extra money in their bank account means paying extra taxes – an issue that Foote says her department is working to resolve with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Foote said that employees who have been overpaid should tell the government, and their cases will be processed once those employees who have been underpaid are resolved.

WATCH: Phoenix payroll problems for federal public servants deepen

2:02 Phoenix payroll problems for federal public servants deepen Phoenix payroll problems for federal public servants deepen

“I encourage those employees who are getting more money than they’re entitled to, to maybe put it in a separate bank account. When it comes down to recovering that money, we will do it and we will do it in a way that’s respectful of those employees, so, if they want to pay back in a lump sum, by all means, and if they want us to put in a payment plan, we’ll do that too.”

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“We will get the money that’s owed to the government, that’s been overpaid, when we get to those cases.” Tweet This

At a stop on his cross-country tour in early January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the Phoenix pay system problems “unacceptable” and pledged to solve them – a sentiment echoed by Foote.

But Daviau is not optimistic. “We see no resolution in sight and we’re already a year in.”