Pay system won’t launch unless it’s 99% ready

The federal government won’t proceed with the second rollout of its new automated pay system unless it’s “99 per cent” sure it is working and ready to go, a top Treasury Board official said Tuesday.

Treasury Board president Scott Brison and his deputy minister told MPs on the Commons government operations committee on Tuesday that the new pay system, known as Phoenix, had glitches in the first rollout but that implementing government-wide IT projects are a huge challenge for the public and private sector alike.

“Before the next phase of departments are ‘on-boarded’ to the new system, Public Services and Procurement … is checking with every department and identifying areas that we have problems with,” said Treasury Board secretary Yaprak Baltacioglu.

“We are feeding into them and alerting them if we are running into problems. If they feel we’re not ready, they will delay. If they feel 99 per cent of it is going to work, then we will go forward.”

Brison said the decision to consolidate all pay operations in a new pay centre in Miramichi, N.B., was made by the previous government to replace a largely manual 40-year-old pay system. He acknowledged some public servants have faced problems getting their pay but added departments are working together to resolve them.

He said the final decision to proceed rests with Public Services and Procurement Minister Judy Foote, whose department oversees the massive pay transformation process.

Foote gave no indication Tuesday that the department was changing course on the Phoenix rollout.

In an email, she said the primary concern is that public servants are paid “in a timely fashion” and that the old system was at the end of its life cycle with “little functionality.”

She said the new system was tested for a year before launch using 16,000 different pay scenarios and was reviewed by a third party.

“As with any major IT implementation, we are anticipating some issues and adjustments following the roll out and are prepared to address them,” Foote said. “We are committed to improving federal government compensation services and reducing payment times.”

The government has been under pressure from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents the 550 compensation advisers at Miramichi, to delay the rollout so they can catch up on a backlog of 115,000 files they claim have yet to be assigned.

But bureaucrats have been insisting that Phoenix will roll out as planned for another 67 departments on Thursday. The first test of how well it works will be May 4, the first payday for all 101 departments and agencies using Phoenix.

Brison was testifying about his department’s Main Estimates when he was asked by Conservative MP Steven Blaney, former minister of Public Safety and Veterans Affairs, if he could assure public servants in the second rollout that they will be getting their pay on time.

Blaney said he was particularly concerned about members of the coast guard who have returned from long periods at sea and found to their “horror” when they returned to shore that paycheques weren’t deposited into their accounts.

“Are you able to reassure us that these problems have been identified and corrected?” he asked. “When it comes to the second phase, can you assure this won’t happen again?”

Brison said large IT projects have always proved “frustrating” for government, which he said must “become a better procurer of enterprise-wide solutions. We have a ways to go, as do most governments.”

For the pay system, it’s unclear how many people are not getting paid, as opposed to those who are getting paid but not all they are owed.

Anecdotally, it seems the system works for employees who receive regular paycheques with no extra duty payments. Employees with operational jobs, such as the coast guard, typically have complicated schedules and pay rules that seem to have contributed to problems.

There have also been delays and other snags with new hires, terminations and term and casual employees whose contracts are renewed.

The unions and government are presenting very different assessments of the extent, scope or even the nature of the problems.

Public Services has service standards that set turnaround times for various pay transactions, such as for a new hire, a termination or extra-duty pay. The department has been tracking its performance on those standards since it began transferring employee files to the pay centre in 2013.

According to its website, the department is not posting its performance during the transition to Phoenix during March and April and will resume posting in June.

The department says everything is in hand, that Phoenix is working and proceeding as expected for such a massive and complex project.

Unions say the pay centre is swamped, Phoenix isn’t working and employees won’t be able to cope when 170,000 more files are added into Phoenix.

In other matters, Brison said Treasury Board was working with unions to reduce harassment in the public service.

In the last public service survey, about 20 per cent of employees said they were harassed on the job.

Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick has made mental health and a healthy workplace a priority and included it as part of this year’s performance contracts with all deputy ministers.

As with any major IT implementation, we are anticipating some issues ... following the roll out and are prepared to address them.