Thursday, January 10, 2013

Novapay--'beyond a joke' is a terrible cliche!


It is about time that the Government considered cancelling the contract they have with Novapay. I obviously do not know the contents of the existing contract signed by the Ministry and OK’d by Labour (is that correct?). The constant reports of stuffups, underpayment, non-payment and over payment beggars the mind. I suspect that a great deal of energy is put into retrieving those overpayments but not enough into fixing the problems that cause these events.

Our hard-working principals and key support staff have had their much needed holidays interrupted as they have had to return to school to sort out the mistakes for their staff. The staff affected are in a position of dreading their pay days; wondering what has been done to their accounts by the Novapay system.

Is it not time to look at alternatives to Novapay? I am assuming that the move was made as a money saving measure. How much research was done in regard to how effective this organization is? I have heard anecdotal reports that the same company has a bad name in Australia; unconfirmed of course. Do the media have to do the work for the Ministry; because we are hearing little from the Government and Ministry? What gets me is that Minister Parata has had little to say on the matter, especially since Parliament went on holiday.

The bottom line is that Novapay is causing a great deal of angst for many teachers, support staff and principals. The whole debacle has reached the point where the Government must consider returning to the system that Novapay replaced. I know that it is possibly very naive of me to suggest such a solution given the reality of ‘contracts and law,’ but surely signing a document has ‘safeguards’ that recognise a course of actions for when things go terribly wrong. How much time and how many more people need to be forced through the ‘mill of Novapay’s incompetence before some action is taken?

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