Government’s new payroll system has seen mistakes made in wages issued to employees, a minister has admitted.

It was branded a ’hideous ordeal’ for some employees by MHK Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew).

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas offered to ’categorically apologise’ to public servants affected and pledged the problems were being resolved.

The People Information Programme (PIP) system for human resources and payroll matters - which will allow employees to review data and update their own personal information - began its roll-out last year, affecting most public sector workers and pensioners. Corrected payslips have had to be sent to some employees due to mistakes.

Mr Thomas was asked by Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) if he was satisfied with the implementation of the new scheme.

The minister admitted that among problems during the roll-out were pay errors, inaccurate pay award arrears calculations and mistakes on payslips, including wrong year to date balances for income tax purposes.

’All of these issues have or are being actively addressed and I am satisfied that the programme we have and the computer system we have procured will deliver significant improvements on our previous system, which was no longer fit for purpose,’ he said.

He also admitted that ’regrettably’ there had been some delay to some of its functions, which he put down to the complexity in the vast array of terms and conditions across the government workforce, plus ’some system performance issues’ and the need to ensure it complied with data protection rules before going live with ’self-service functionality’.

Mr Thomas added: ’I am satisfied that when fully implemented, PIP will be of enormous benefit to everyone.’

Implementation

PIP went live for monthly pay in September last year and for weekly pay in April 2019.

Roll out of the ability for employees to update their personal information has now begun.

Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) said the problems with implementation meant that at present the government had ’no idea’ about sickness absence levels in its workforce and had ’shot itself in the foot’.

Mr Thomas said since PIP payroll went live, sickness data had been uploaded manually but improvements were due to take place on the system.

Clare Bettison (Douglas East) asked what action would be taken in cases of tax where employees had been given incorrect information and end up over-paying or under-paying a tax bill.

The minister said he was sure appropriate ’accommodation’ would be made in such circumstances.