Not an easy task for government payroll

THE Government’s payroll system is an electronic procedural arrangement that incorporates all aspects of pay for public servants.
In the event of a pay increment and deduction, either one -off, periodically or for a specific period, the data input should be carefully analysed and correctly determined as approved by respective agency heads.
With increased teachers, health workers, disciplinary forces, civil servants, Village Court officials, and the recent inclusion of 7,000-odd local level government (LLG) ward councillors, running efficient electronic payment system is a bi-weekly daunting task.
To ensure an efficient and effective two-week of payroll loaded into the system, competent, analytically-skilled and sound mindset of personnel is required.
This involves paying close attention to details of changes in allowances, increments or deductions as is legally allowed. This should be correctly and honestly applied with nil human errors and/or omissions.
Finance Department payroll staff, who are tasked with fortnightly updating and executing of various State agencies payroll, in consultation with their respective human resources data input, should be timely or fortnightly updated to ensure correct amount and rates are applied.
The coordination between each State agencies and the central Government payroll system in dealing with correct and approved rates should be paramount in minimising discrepancies or so-called electronic technical glitch, whether this glitch is a result of human error or system error is only known to those tasked with the responsibility of executing the payroll system.
Thus, to maintain the reliability and integrity of the system, highly knowledgeable, skilled, competent and analytically-sound-minded human resource and payroll personnel is required for efficient performance. For example, sub-national level (provincial governments) dealing with teachers’ pay is a daunting task every week because of the number of teacher movements and changes.
If a province has 4,000 or 5,000 teachers on payroll, the corresponding reports from school inspectors or school heads to confirm the staff establishment given the most remote localities of schools is quite challenging.
The same could be true with other State agencies when it comes to payroll efficiency every two weeks.

Philip Ukuni