Novopay could take up to two years to fix, says leaked paper

IT COULD be two years before the failing Novopay system is fixed because a fundamental redesign is needed, leaked documents reveal.

Officials have recommended the Government renegotiate its contract with provider Talent2, but advise that will require more taxpayer money.

The Novopay software pays about 110,000 school staff – but up to 8000 have received the wrong wages since it was implemented in August.

A pay round due overnight – the first cycle of the new year – is expected to be shambolic with a new secondary school teachers’ collective agreement coming into play.

Teachers have already reported errors and Novopay minister Steven Joyce has said he is not ‘‘massively confident’’ about the pay round.

The Dominion Post has obtained a copy of the briefing prepared for Mr Joyce as incoming minister, after it was leaked to the education sector and Opposition parties. In it officials are blunt about the lost confidence in both the IT system and Talent2 service and say Novopay is at a ‘‘critical point’’.

‘‘The Novopay system is producing too many errors . . . a fundamental redesign of the service delivery model is required.’’

That meant negotiating contract changes with Talent2 and more funding, they said.

Contractual constraints meant the Ministry of Education had no say in how the service was designed.

Talent2’s lack of senior representation in New Zealand impeded its ability to make decisions, officials said. The ministry gave the company hand-picked candidates after ‘‘tapping into our networks’’.

Officials said there were known errors when the system went live, which was normal, but new defects continued to arise which Talent2 could not deal with. Taxpayers would likely have to stump up more money to help resolve the problems.

‘‘We can expect it to take 18 to 24 months before the Novopay system is delivering at the level that we expected – let alone being able to deliver genuine benefits to school users.’’

Mr Joyce said two years was unacceptable but he could not say how long it would take.

‘‘I would be expecting improvements pretty quickly, but you know it is going to take a period of time to get things where we want to go.’’

The Government would have a clearer idea in four weeks when the technical review was completed, he said.

Meanwhile, it was happy to put forward extra funding and would look to recover what it could from Talent2.

Officials said those working with the system were not provided with enough support and the call centre workers were not equipped to deal with the quantity or complexity of queries.

Compensation for schools and staff would have to be considered in the future, Mr Joyce was advised.