The failure of the federal government’s Phoenix payroll system has now surpassed $3.6 billion in costs, as per a briefing note from the Department of Public Works.
“We have implemented numerous system enhancements and fixes that have contributed to increased stability in the pay system and overall pay administration environment,” stated the briefing note dated April 15. “To date, $3.65 billion has been invested in Phoenix.”
The government is dedicated to supporting federal employees and is actively working to address the pay issues in the public service, as outlined in the note obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Since the introduction of Phoenix, we have put in place a series of measures and have made consistent progress,” the note highlighted.
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Assistant Deputy Public Works Minister Simon Page testified in November at the House of Commons government operations committee that costs were still ongoing.
“The total amount includes both the cost of ongoing payments to public servants as well as addressing issues like the backlog and system improvements,” he explained.
As of March 2022, approximately 17 percent of federal employees still required corrections to their payments from Ottawa, a decrease from 41 percent in the previous year, according to the report.
“While these findings show improvement compared to previous years,” the report stated, “the error rate is still a concern.”
