November 20 2012
Novopay – Mission Impossible
After nearly four months, school principals report that Novopay has not improved the standard of its delivery and for
many it has now become ‘mission impossible’,’ says Paul Drummond, President of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation.
‘We have just conducted our third survey, ‘said Drummond, ‘and the results show we still have 90% of principals telling
us that they have unresolved issues from previous pay rounds and that in 70% of schools at least one staff member is not
paid correctly in the latest pay round. 87% of principals have no confidence in the system.’
The Novopay system has cost tax payers $29 million and has been troubled right from the start. Staff expected a few
teething problems and showed much tolerance and patience but with the continual unresolved and newly emerging issues
they now question whether Novopay can ever be fixed.
‘We are trying to do the impossible in an environment that is intolerable with a system that is dysfunctional,’ said
Drummond. ‘It is quite unrealistic that all schools will meet the 21 November deadline to have their end of year data
submitted. Feedback tells us that in many cases the system simply won’t allow schools to submit the information. Many
report that even if they can submit information, half of it is lost in transmission, and asking Novopay staff for help
is likely to yield further incorrect information. It is simply unprofessional and unacceptable,’ he says.
‘The state of the payroll system has now reached crisis level,’ says Drummond, ‘and without drastic immediate
intervention, problems will only compound,’ he said. ‘It’s not as if we are just dealing with historic issues. Every pay
round new random issues occur and every survey we conduct we discover more breaches of privacy. There are serious
systemic problems with Novopay that have to be acknowledged and urgently addressed,’ he said.
‘It is also time to discuss financial compensation that goes wider than the Ministry paying for auditing costs because
of Novopay incompetencies,’ said Drummond. ‘Affected staff are incurring penalty costs through things like automatic
payments not going through, not to mention the extraordinary hours school staff are working as they battle what has now
become Mission Impossible,’ he said.
ENDS