Today’s report by Auditor General Michael Ferguson on the problems with the troubled Phoenix pay system provides further evidence to support our argument that Phoenix is beyond fixing and should be replaced.
The AG’s report, the first of two reports on Phoenix, found that “A sustainable solution will take years and cost more than the $540 million the government expected to spend to resolve pay problems." It also states: "The government needs to be aware that it may be in a similar situation to Queensland Health, a department in the Australian State of Queensland, which after eight years has spent over CAN$1.2 billion and continues to resolve problems with its pay system."
Phoenix began life under the previous Harper government as a cost-saving initiative. It has proven exactly the opposite: a gargantuan, costly mistake. Faced with similar failure on such a scale, one would expect most businesses to cut their losses and start over. The federal government should do the same and build a new system tailored to federal government needs, relying on its own in-house IT expertise rather than IBM's. Our members, taxpayers, and the current government should not continue to pay for the failure of the last government.