Horror Stories Caused By
Lack of Appropriate Testing

Untested Payroll System is a Disaster

Chris Griffith, the Courier Mail, Brisbane, Australia
19 November 2005

Brisbane City Council introduced a new wages system for its employees despite warnings it was riddled with errors. The disastrous new payroll system mispaid Lord Mayor Campbell Newman twice, double-paid council CEO Jude Munro and gave staff two days' pay for each sick day.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that millions of ratepayer dollars now being thrown at the problem could have been saved.

Councillor Newman's office said last night there were 163 council staff working on or trying to fix the payroll system.

In the weeks after the payroll's introduction on June 27, the council received 1400 complaints from staff who either received no pay, were underpaid or overpaid, or found they had been reclassified from permanent to casual.

Cr Newman has been both overpaid and underpaid by the new system – he received $211 in office expenses he was not entitled to, and recently a $450 claim he made for travel while in China in October was mistakenly paid to another Newman on the payroll.

The documents show senior officers were concerned that a staff union may find out the payroll system's implementation on June 27 was not supported by the council's payroll team.

"There is a sense that a decision to go live without the support of the payroll team and/or any subsequent payroll errors may be referred to the union," said the minutes of a project alliance board meeting on May 26.

Another project alliance board meeting on June 17, 10 days before implementation, attacked staff who believed the system was not ready.

A council Operations Management Group meeting four days before implementation reported that 265 system defects had not been tested, 31 defects were not resolved.

A project team meeting the same day recorded they were "not yet" convinced the system would pay everyone accurately.

At the height of the problem the council was investigating 2400 payroll complaints, and this week 516 issues were unresolved.

Cr Newman said staff were sent to bus depots to hand out "wads of cash" to workers who risked defaulting on mortgage repayments and health insurance premiums. Fifty staff received no pay.

source: The Courier Mail