Ministry Says 8,000 Novopay Transactions Cleared

Media release

19 November 2012

Ministry Says 8,000 Novopay Transactions Cleared

The Ministry of Education says 8000 transactions from Novopay’s early pay periods has been cleared, and schools will also be reimbursed for additional audit costs related to the new payroll system.

Group Manager, Rebecca Elvy says clearing all the early transactions is an important step towards a much improved payroll system for schools.

“During Novopay’s first pay periods, many schools faxed payroll forms to the service centre rather than using the online service, and we fully appreciate their reasons given some of the issues encountered online.

“The result was around 8,000 paper-based transactions to work through. Clearing this backlog frees up significant time and resources to make sure Novopay delivers as it should for all schools and staff.”

Ms Elvy says the Ministry of Education will also reimburse schools for additional audit costs they might incur because of issues with Novopay.

“We recognise errors in Novopay’s staffing and payroll reports could create extra auditing work and therefore costs to schools as part of their annual financial audit.
We are working with the Office of the Auditor General to first minimise additional audit costs as much as possible. Any costs that schools have to incur, and that are directly related to Novopay, will be reimbursed.

“The Auditor General’s office will identify which schools will incur additional audit expenses as a direct consequence of Novopay, and we will work directly with those schools.”

Ms Elvy says Novopay specialists are working directly with schools on the end of year payroll process.

“We’ve also put end of year guidance on the Novopay website based on the road shows around the country over the past fortnight.”

Ms Elvy says while a number of schools have clearly had difficulties with Novopay, the Ministry remain committed to the system performing as intended and is working with Talent2 to make sure this happens.

ENDS

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