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Government's 'Mr Fixit' takes on Novopay

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Government's 'Mr Fixit' takes on Novopay

3News NZ

The Government's "Mr Fixit" Steven Joyce has been given the job of sorting out the error-ridden teacher pay system Novopay

The Government's "Mr Fixit" Steven Joyce has been given the job of sorting out the error-ridden teacher pay system Novopay

Senior cabinet ministers have been put in charge of fixing the error-ridden teacher pay system Novopay.

It has been failing since it was rolled out in August and Associate Education Minister Craig Foss hasn't been able to do much about it.

Prime Minister John Key has decided the Government's "Mr Fixit" Steven Joyce will be able to find out what's wrong with Novopay, working with Finance Minister Bill English.

"I suspect the problems are deeply embedded," Mr Key said today.

"We need senior ministers to drill down into it. Fixing the problems are a priority."

Mr Key says Mr Joyce is a tough and meticulous minister.

"If I was running Novopay I'd consider myself on notice," he said.

Novopay is supplied by Australian company Talent2, which has apologised for thousands of errors and has promised to fix the system.

It consistently failed to meet deadlines set by Mr Foss, and the Government has previously said it is looking at penalty clauses in the contract.

As Mr Key was making the announcement, Labour released the latest list of Novopay's faults.

Associate education spokesman Chris Hipkins says Mr Foss has at last supplied him with details showing 7899 teachers were either underpaid or not paid at all.

Another 581 were paid on behalf of schools they weren't working at and the Ministry of Education has had to give schools advances totalling $560,000 to cover mistakes.

Mr Hipkins says Novopay abandoned 15,000 calls to its help line and teachers who did get through had to wait more than an hour.

"The botched system is expected to cost taxpayers $189.5 million over 10 years," he said.

"For that sort of coin, Kiwis expect excellence."

NZN

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Comments

23/01/2013 9:38:08 a.m.

SANBE wrote:

I have watched for some time now at the comments of some people on these sites and I must say that it is actually laughable and sad to see just how easily people are willing to show their ignorance and levels of education. Someone like Kathy who is always against anything National and professes to be a Christian-you should take the time to read some of the drivel you post. Any one in business will know that sometimes a project or some job comes up and needs outside specialized assistance and Consultants are brought in. So why not get someone who has a reputation as a "Mr Fixit" to get involved and sort out this mess? After all we are not all as brilliant as WISEACRE below!

22/01/2013 8:41:44 p.m.

katubaldy wrote:

Finally someone to address the problem of Novopay and its dysfunctional attempts to pay the country's teaching staff. Kind of ironic that in having to bring in Stephen Joyce,Joe Key has '2nd guessed' his own judgement on Hekia's effectiveness,(just last week). Joe Key and Joyce are similar to the George W/Dick Cheney duo....'W' would front the PR spin and Cheney would get in and do the hatchet work behind the scenes...lets hope for the teachers sake that Joyce will lay down the law to the Talent-less2 bums and get this fiasco finally under control in a timely fashion...in the meantime,what do you do with a redundant Minister of Education?....reiterate what a great job she's doing?....hmmm.

22/01/2013 6:45:11 p.m.

hone wrote:

So basically Key has admitted that Parata is not up to the job.... as we all knew all along, eh Ms Ngati Porou.

22/01/2013 6:19:56 p.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

John Key says, "If I was running Novopay I'd consider myself on notice". Shouldn't Novopay have been put "on notice" months ago, when the extent of this debacle became clear? Surely, fixing the problems with Novopay should have been made a priority six months ago. But, we all know how National feel about teachers and public education.

22/01/2013 6:13:39 p.m.

james wrote:

Bringing in Mr fix it? aye? SO now National is admitting that thier novapay was a failure! ? NO NO i bet they're just fixing something that realy did work, realy was a good idea! YEAH RIGHT!!

22/01/2013 4:44:38 p.m.

Kathy wrote:

God help our poor kids with this mans hand in the education portfolio. By the time my young one goes to school these immoral people should have well and truely been voted out.

22/01/2013 2:57:27 p.m.

Greg wrote:

its a Humpty Dumpty product, it cant be fixed.