The Ongoing Saga of Novopay and the Minister of Misinformation

This morning I was cruising through all the news apps on my phone and I spotted this wee story from late yesterday afternoon from 3 News:  Ministry chasing Novopay overpayments.

Steven Joyce, the Minister of Misinformation, is at it again telling us that Novopay is settling in.

Bullshit Minister!

It has been 20 months since Novopay went live thanks to being signed off by Hekia Parata, Craig Foss and Bill English and it is still a dog with fleas throwing up new issues frequently.

At our last NZEI branch primary teachers PUM (paid union meeting), with maybe 70 odd attendees, 90% put up their hands to show they continued to have ongoing issues with Novopay personally. These ran from not being paid, to not being paid correctly (not at right level, under or overpaid, not paid units & allowances), to stuff ups with sick leave, maternity leave, unpaid or study leave. 

 

And that doesn't include principals, support staff or caretakers and/or cleaners.

 

In early March I was talking to a principal of a city school.  She is a strong character and doesn't take things lying down.  She told me one of the Novopay stories at her school: 

 

At the end of 2012, just as they were breaking up for the end of term four, Novopay made an overpayment of $17,000 to support staff, some teachers, and a teacher who hadn't worked at the school for months.  That $17,000 sent the school bank account into the red.

 

No reimbursement was made throughout 2013, despite numerous phone calls and letters and emails to Novopay and the Ministry of Education. 

 

As 2013 progressed, our heroine principal decided on a new plan of attack.  The local MP, a back bencher who doesn't get a lot of noticing outside the local city newspaper (he's really seen in the region's major newspaper, let alone in National media), was approached to help solve the problem.  This principal applied substantial pressure on this MP to advocate for the return of the monies owed to her school.  She applied this pressure regularly, so regularly that he decided that to get some peace he would get the MOE to reimburse this city school.

 

So early in 2014, the money was finally returned to this city school.  Then the MOE tried to tell the heroine principal that it was "just a loan" until Novopay paid back the money.  Back to the MP she went.... and he got the MOE to retract that statement.

  

I have another friend with a wife, several children and a mortgage who wakes up every second Wednesday and wonders if the Novopay Lottery has come through for him that morning.  Each fortnight throws up new wonders for him.  One week no pay, the next fortnight underpaid, the following correct, the next one overpaid....  Every fortnight brings new stress for him and his family.  It has an impact on him paying his mortgage, putting petrol in the car, child support payments....  It impacts his principal and office staff who deal with the fact that Novopay has stuffed up yet again.

 

So if you or a fellow staff member are still being given the short end of the stick 20 months after its implementation this is what you need to do:

• inform your principal/admin staff responsible for Novopay in your school asap each time. 
• ring NZEI on 0800 NZEI HELP (or the PPTA one if you're a secondary teacher) to get their support, but also so they can keep tabs on the problem and create general pressure.
• keep a record of every Novopay stuff up and how it has affected you and what's been done to resolve it. Keep adding to the record each time a stuff up happens.  Make sure you have dates and even screen shots of your payslips and missed payments and extra charges from your bank accounts.
• email that record of stuff ups to your local MP, Steven Joyce, Hekia Parata and even John Key and Nikki Kaye (Associate Minister of Education who seems to have a better grasp of the portfolio than Hekia) to show them that there is still a problem and it's ongoing.
• send a copy to opposition education spokespeople like Chris Hipkins, Catherine Delahunty and Tracey Martin so they can keep the acid on the government.

 

I've said it before and I will continue to say it over and over again:  Novopay is a dog with fleas and should be dumped Steven Joyce.  Hekia Parata, Craig Foss and Bill English should have lost their jobs for signing off this project, and Hekia and Craig as well as Anne Tolley should have lost their jobs for not monitoring the project as it was developed effectively.

Essentially, these ministers, Mr Joyce, Ms Parata, Mr Foss and Mrs Tolley have failed the standard.

Why Hekia Parata (and Anne, Craig and Bill) should go!!

I've been wanting to write my opinions about Hekia Parata for months - but held off in the belief that the right time to blog would arrive.  It has.

If anything, the last week has shown why Hekia Parata should not be a minister of the government of New Zealand.  It beggars belief that John Key did not stand her down in his cabinet reshuffle a few weeks ago - and that really must be due to Hekia's mate Bill English (more on him later) that she still is a minister.  The fact that John Key appointed Steven Joyce to sort out the Novopay debarcle also speaks volumes.  It tells us that Hekia cocked up and is unable to fix it, to be blunt.

But Hekia isn't the only one who should be for the chopping block.  Read on as I explain.

The last week has been daily revelations of what has happened since the contract for the education payroll first went to tender in 2005.  John Campbell (Campbell Live Friday 1 February 2013 "What really happened in the Novopay debarcle") did a wonderful blow by blow of highlights, and the following really stood out:

• Talent2 were shortlisted for the payroll contract in 2005 (under a Labour government).
• Talent2 won the payroll contract in 2008 (under a Labour government).
• Talent2 said they would have the new education payroll up and running in 2010.
• The name "Novopay" first became the label for the payroll in October 2008.
• "There is a good relationship between the Ministry and Talent2" - minutes from the Novopay Board in November 2008.
• "Project in Yellow status overall due to slippage in some deliverables" - minutes from the Novopay Board in May 2009 (under a National government - Anne Tolley the Minister of Education).
• "Feedback has raised three areas of concern... risks around the late start for the payroll service" - for a briefing to Cabinet in July 2009 (under a National government).
• "Concerns raised on slippage in relation to milestone dates.... Talent2 have undertaken to improve processes..." - minutes from the Novopay Board in August 2009.
• "Information lacking still.  Need for a frank assessment... risks around changes to the schedule" - minutes from the Novopay Board in February 2010.
• "The confidence level of the proposed 'Go Live' date remained low" - minutes from the Novopay Board February/March 2010 (under a National government with Anne Tolley still the Minister of Education).
• Go Live formally delayed until 2011 in May 2010.
• "The Board should real concern the project had missed the first milestone..." - minutes from the Novopay Board in July 2010.
• "There are also some trust issues between teams... A frank and open discussion took place" - minutes from the Novopay Board in July 2010.
• "The Board needs to have confidence in the Project to be able to report to the Minister and the Cabinet on progress" - minutes from the Novopay Board in January 2012 (under a National government with Hekia Parata having been the Minister of Education for one month).
• "The Board noted it does not have confidence in Talent2's forecasting..." - minutes from the Novopay Board in January 2012.
• "A formal warning letter was delivered to Talent2" - minutes from the Novopay Board in April 2012.
• "Talent2 is laying the foundations for an allegation that the Ministry is in breach of its good faith obligations..." from a highly confidential internal MOE memo dated 19 April 2012.  "This is a clear signal that Talent2 will adopt the position that any termination by the Ministry would amount to repudiation of contract... If correct, that would entitle Talent2... to pursue the Ministry for damages."

So back in November 2008, all was cheery and rosy, the honeymoon stage so to speak.  So what went fundamentally wrong between then and August 2009?  I could say that it was a change of government, a change of leadership at the top.  We all know that as soon as National came to power there was a dramatic change of culture within the Ministry of Education, they stopped talking to schools and ECE centres and collaboration and consultation ceased.

John Campbell told us that Talent2 were known to use their charm offensive when challenged over the "slippages" in delivering milestones.  But one wonders why Anne Tolley, then Minister of Education, didn't challenge these: 

• Was she just too inexperienced as a minister?
• Did the MOE cover up the extent of the deficiencies of Talent2?
• Were the MOE too scared to tell Mrs Tolley what was happening?

When National came in, they had a policy of decreasing the public service, taking people out of backroom jobs and putting them on the frontline.  The MOE was not immune to this, and lost some quality people with a lot of institutional knowledge and experience.  Those remaining in the MOE may well have been considering their job security when it came to rocking the boat over the Novopay lack of progress.  Combine that loss of knowledge and experience with concerns over job security and the fact that Anne Tolley was quite well known for throwing wobblies when she was told something she didn't want to hear from the MOE, and the answers to the above questions could be answered with: "quite possibly, yes."

Karen Sewell was still the Secretary of Education at this stage, but left the position in 2011 when Lesley Longstone took up the role.  It was not a secret that Ms Sewell was not a fan of National's education policies and was having difficulty stomaching the implementation of these policies.  One does wonder if she also tried to have a frank discussion with Minister Tolley over the lack of completion of milestones by Talent2, but was rebuffed.

So we know that there were concerns as early as August 2009 that the new Novopay pay roll system was in trouble for implementation in 2010, but then 2010 comes and "confidence is low" in Talent2, the 'Go Live' is pushed back to 2011 and no one is jumping up and down??  This is public money!!  John Key talked constantly of transparent government, but where is the transparency here?  Shouldn't there have been enough concern at the fact these milestones were not reached in mid 2010 to start an audit or investigation of some sort?  But then again, Anne Tolley was somewhat distracted by the strong opposition to National Standards that was in full swing at the time.

And as we know, Novopay did not 'Go Live' in 2011.  But New Zealand Post's new pay roll system did in April 2011.  "EPMU national industry organiser Joe Gallagher told NZ Newswire that problems with the pay system at NZ Post provided by Talent2 are ongoing more than 18 months after it went live on April 1, 2011."  Check it out by clicking here.  "Mr Gallagher said problems with the Talent2 system at NZ Post begged the question of why the company got another government contract....  NZ Post workers had been over-paid and under-paid. There had been thousands of mistakes from a system that was not fit for purpose.... 'I could go on all day about it,' he said.  Even now it is still not perfect, and they are still ironing the problems out of this "dog"."

Would it scare you much if I told you now that the Fire Service will this year "Go Live" with a pay roll developed by Talent2 as well?  My source tells me that fire fighters are nervous and are ready to walk off the job if the first pay goes wrong.

John Campbell's summary misses out anything that happened regarding Novopay between July 2010 and January 2012.  One wonders what happened, or didn't, during that 18 month period.  Because wouldn't this have been a good time to make sure it was fixed?  Is this the reason why Anne Tolley was moved sideways from the Education portfolio into the Police and Corrections portfolios rather than failing to get on top of the resistance to National Standards and plain being a useless and tactless tantrum throwing Minister of Education (by the way, I feel your pain police members and prison/corrections staff)?

So after the 2011 election John Key reshuffled his cabinet.  Moving Anne Tolley out of the Education portfolio was the answer to the sector's prayers.  We looked at Hekia Parata as a new set of eyes and ears, and hoped that she would be more forthcoming in collaborating with the different areas of the sector.

How wrong we were.

Hekia has managed to allienate the education sector in such a professional way that Anne Tolley could only profess to be an amateur!  Hekia spoke at Learning at Schools in Hamilton in January and later in April at the National Aspiring Principals Programme (NAPP) hui and impressed with her ability to speak with authority of the issues of the day and statistics without referring to notes.  By the time of the Rural Principal's conference in August, the announcements to the Christchurch Schools in August and her amazing performances at the NZEI and PPTA annual meetings in September/October, we knew that she had the same speil to give to everyone and did not like being challenged. 

She pointed her finger at the Rural Principal's conference, waggling it at them like they were naughty children.  She knew what all those colour coded badges meant the day that she sat with Lesley Longstone and Gerry Brownlee to tell the principals and board chairs the fates of their schools.  She sat there with a sour look on her face and steam coming out of her ears at NZEI's annual meeting because members rebutted her policies and ideas and told her how it actually was, but she also offended every teacher in the room when she told us we were failing to teach guided reading, mathematics and science effectively (maybe that's because National dumped the Literacy Project in favour of National Standards, hijacked the Numeracy Project with National Standards, and decimated our advisory services so we no long have science advisors)!  And then she told off the PPTA annual meeting because Pasifica and Maori children are failing because teachers don't pronounce their names properly (perhaps we should just call her Patricia).

And then there are Hekia's other brilliant standout efforts of the last year:

• Ignoring advice of the MOE and following Treasury's advice instead to increase class sizes under the lie of "improving teacher quality.
• Ignoring the electorate/parents cries of foul against increasing class sizes.
• The backdown - only after John Key realised it was an epic fail of a policy and was hurting his popularity in the blue ribbon electorates.
• The announcement that the minimum teacher qualification should be a one year post-grad (God help children if this comes to pass!).
• Signing off on Novopay to "Go Live", despite the Novopay Board saying that there were at least 147 problems with it, without investigating further.
• Not fronting over Novopay or the reorganisation of Christchurch schools.
• An atrocious relationship with her Secretary of Education, Lesley Longstone, which spilled out into the public domain and culminated in Longstone resigning.
• Going through several private secretaries and a losing a senior advisor two months into a two year secondment.  The lastest private secretary to go was just before Christmas. 
• Passing the buck for Novopay onto Craig Foss.
• Refusing to attend important events in the education community within New Zealand and overseas.
• Refusing to engage with the NZEI, PPTA, NZAIMS, early childhood organisations and other organisations over educational issues.
• And then to top it off there was her comment about how it was "karma" that MOE staff had their pay affected last week - what she failed to comprehend when she said that was that a lot of those MOE staff have nothing to do with Novopay as they could be speech language therapists, GSE teachers.....

And as for John Key's assertion that there is no other person who cares as much about the achievement or the underachievement of Maori and Pasifica children than Hekia Parata, well he does a disservice to every teacher with Maori and Pasifica students in their classes.  And that comment on her being a top notch communicator - sure, if you like her cliches and jingoisms, I'm quite sure she would make a killing in the world of advertising or sales... perhaps she should work with Suzanne Paul selling some Natural Glow or some new wonder vacume cleaner!!

For another blogger's view of Hekia, read this blog "What the Hekia?" and realise I'm not the only one who thinks Hekia is not up to the job.

So far I have commented on Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata in their time as the Minister of Education.  I have shown that they both had numerous opportunities to prevent the train wreck that is Novopay.

But two more people have a part to play in this debarcle. 

Craig Foss was given responsibility for Novopay.  I've been wondering when that happened exactly.... does anyone know the answer?  John Key claims that this was done to allow Hekia to oversee the set up for Charter Schools (another dog of an idea), which one would think should have been in John Banks' court considering it was supposedly an ACT condition of coalition, but then Banks was a bit busy at the time dealing with his dodgy donation deals.  How soon did Hekia know that Novopay was a "dog with a few fleas" (to borrow Steven Joyce's apt phrase) and decided to throw that hospital pass onto someone else?  Why didn't Craig Foss ask the questions when the milestones weren't met and the Novopay Board questioned weather or not the "Go Live" would work?  Why was he not more upfront with the education community and the questioning in parliament?  Why did Craig Foss sign off on the "Go Live" despite the 147 identified errors in the pay roll system?

And then there is Hekia's good mate Bill English.  Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy National Leader, number two in the National Party rankings.  (I have a lot more I could say about Bill English and his performance, but another time).  Hekia is a part of this government because she is Bill English's protege and mate.  And Bill English, I assume because he is the Minister of Finance, also signed off on Novopay to "Go Live".  Surely, the man who is in charge of the government's finances, in charge of how our taxes are spent, would make sure he was approving the go ahead for a project that wasn't going to cost the tax payer a fortune and embarrass the government he is deputy leader of? 

But it seems the answers to all my questions regarding the roles of Anne Tolley, Hekia Parata, Craig Foss and Bill English are rather unsatisfactory.

As a tax payer I feel we are being cheated by a government that can not dot its 'i's and cross its 't's in the rush to implement poor policy and sell off our country.

As a teacher who has begun at a new school this last week, I wait nervously for Wednesday morning to see if I have been paid or not (my new principal assures me that all the feedback from Novopay is good, but please excuse me if I have no trust in Novopay).

Basically, Novopay has been an epic fail and should be thrown to the sharks.  Hekia Parata has been an epic fail as the Minister of Education.  But to sum it up, I have a little report card below:

• Hekia Parata  =  failed to meet the standard
• Anne Tolley  =  failed to meet the standard
• Craig Foss     =  failed to meet the standard
• Bill English   =  failed to meet the standard

Novopay - or Nevapay!!

The Novopay issue has gone from bad to laughable to worse and the crystal ball is not looking favourably towards a resolution in this coming pay week. 

Google Novopay (go on, I dare you) and you will see endless complaints and news stories on this debarcle.  Thanks Campbell Live for taking up the cause for so many people who have been stuffed around by Novopay.

Novopay has a near $30 million contract with the Ministry of Education to service the payroll of the education sector.  So who does this pay roll cover?

• primary and intermediate teachers
• secondary teachers
• kindergarten teachers
• principals at secondary, primary, intermediate and middle schools
• support staff (e.g. office administrators, teacher aides, librarians, science lab assistants, etc...)
• cleaning staff and caretaker staff employed directly by schools
• resource teachers (e.g. RTLB, RTLit....)
• special education workers (e.g. speech language therapists, physiotherapists.....)
• relief teachers in all sectors

There are over 120,000 people on this payroll at any one time and all of these professionals have had cases of their pay being affected.  Many of these people are the sole bread winners of their families.  All of these people would have bills to pay, even mortgages and/or loans to service.  A bit hard though when you are not getting paid.

Who is Novopay?  Novopay is a payroll company owned by Talent2 Global who state:

Talent2 multiplies the power and productivity of people. We are the leading HR BPO organisation in the Asia Pacific region, working with clients across diverse organisation types and industries to deliver end-to-end talent management solutions that put people first.

When you go to their website, click on the payroll section and then view the page regarding their stories of success with clients, New Zealand's education payroll does not feature (as at 2:29pm 11/11/12).  I guess with the list of problems outlined briefly below, it doesn't quite feature success, in fact, one could say that Novopay is WELL BELOW the standard!

So what are the common complaints we have been hearing about Novopay in regards to being paid, or not being paid:

• not being paid
• being paid too much
• being paid too little
• being paid when you are not supposed to be being paid (i.e. while on leave)
• being paid one cent more or less than you are supposed to be
• not having payments made to third parties (i.e. Kiwisaver and superannuation schemes - one wonders if our tax payments are being made, or student loan repayments)
• Not being paid for part days (apparently this isn't something their system can do)

Then there are the pay slips themselves:

• no prior notification in regards to the password needed to open it (have you noticed you still need the password even after you have saved the PDF to your own computer to open your payslip?  I'm finding this very irritating and inconvenient!).
• The lack of information as to which days you have been paid for if you are a reliever.

Then there are the other wee inconveniences:

• MOE numbers have changed when people changed schools or came back from leave.
• Employment history such as qualifications, payscales, sick leave, years of service wiped due to either the change of MOE numbers or sheer incompetence in the system.
• The fact that if you need to check what you have already inputted for the fortnigh, there is no click on button in the website to do this (I tried to help the admin lady at my school find it - no luck)
• The fact that they have stuffed up most part-time employees' pay because their system didn't accept part days!

Talent 2 has had at least four years to get their Novopay system up and running.  They got the contract in 2008!  According to this editorial in the Dominion, Novopay have asked repeatedly for delays to their system coming online so they could iron out the bugs and ''to ensure we introduce a payroll system that pays every staff member the right amount, on time, every time''.  Tui ad anyone?

There was no testing the system properly before it went online.  Infact, earlier this year, Novopay asked their start time to be deferred until into 2013, but the MOE refused this request.  Who is responsible?  Well, let's see, who is in charge of the MOE?  Lesley Longstone.  Again Lesley fails to meet the standard as this directly falls under her sphere of influence.  For more information, read Kelvin Smythe's blog.

Schools are now sending invoices to the MOE to request reimbursement for the extreme amount of staff hours now spent on sorting out payroll stuff ups by Novopay.  Auckland principals are refusing to implement MOE policy until the stuff ups stop and are sorted.  Some people, mainly support staff, have stopped going to work - how can you run a car to go to work if you have no money because you haven't been paid?  Many people have run up credit card debt, defaulted on loan and/or mortgage payments, paid their bills late - if at all - and incurred penalty fees.  Should they bare the brunt of this when it was outside of their control, when previously they had been paid properly and on time?

So as I write this blog, on the eve of another pay day, keeping an eye on the chat about Novopay on Facebook and Twitter, I can tell you that a number of people have not received their payslips for tomorrow, that some have received a payslip and found errors, and some have lost hope in being paid tomorrow.

Three months into the actual implementation and Novopay have not met the standard.

Who will take responsibility?  Will it be a lacky at Novopay?  What about Talent2?  Will Lesley Longstone take responsibility?  Or will some lacky further down the MOE food chain be sacrificed?  Does the buck stop with Craig Foss or Hekia Parata?

I don't see this situation being resolved anytime soon.  With End Of Year pays and changes of staff in the New Year, I see a whole lot more problems in my crystal ball when it comes to Novopay for the education profession, the MOE and Novopay.

Bullshit John Key says....

This morning I watched John Key on Breakfast (TV1) because Rawdon Christie said that the Prime Minister would be on to discuss the backout of Kyoto by his government and the Novopay debarcle.

Check it out here:  http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/john-key-kyoto-protocol-backdown-video-5209695

Predictably, John Key defended the decision to have Associate Education Minister Craig Foss deal with Novopay.  Predictably he cited commercial sensitivity when questioned about the sanctions Novopay and its parent company Talent2 would face if the issues are not fixed by the Wednesday deadline Mr Foss has set.  (By the way, don't hold your breath on that one; our admin lady has already picked up the same set of errors for our cleaner/caretaker position that we've had for the last three months!)

Craig Foss has come under some intense scrutiny by the opposition in parliament over the Novopay debarcle.  Nanaia Mahuta (Labour Education spokesperson) has called for Hekia Parata to step in and solve the issue herself.  The NZEI has called for a public inquiry into the Novopay debarcle.  However, John Key claims that Mr Foss is doing a great job with this issue he has been delegated, and that it is actually Novopay at fault, that it is Novopay who is responsible for fixing the issues.

John claimed that the previous payroll provider (Datacom/Multiserve) couldn't carry on as their system was breaking down.  Well, that is news to administrators and principals in schools about the country I am sure!!  The lovely admin lady at our school scoffed at the PM's assertion.  She has been in the job for ten years or so at our school, and she has never had a headache with the payroll like she has had with it since Novopay went online.  Even the fact that she is an administrator at a neighbouring school as well put Novopay in a complete spin!!  She dreads pay week now!

John Key tried to claim that there are many intricacies in teachers' pay.  Yes, there are some extra allowances, units, etc., but Novopay don't know their percentages, fractions and decimals because one of their biggest problems in paying people is the fact they don't seem to be able to process people who work part time or relieve for part days.  So I guess they fail the numeracy standard.

Between 5:38-6:20 in the Breakfast interview, John Key valiantly tries to defend Hekia Parata as the Minister of Education.  He made this very true statement: "Quite frankly if you put any of the twenty of us in Cabinet into that portfolio we'd face just the same issues."

Well Mr Key, let me put it in simple words even you can understand:  Your Minister of Education, regardless of who they are, will be passionately opposed by the education sectors while they continue to push forward policies that are detrimental to New Zealand's quality public education system, best practise, sound research and what is best for children!!!!!

"A well organised opposition" is what Mr Key said has been mounted against Hekia Parata - again here he speaks the truth.  We are a well organised opposition because we have good practise and research on our side.  Parents want what is best for their children - and they are increasingly aware that NACT policy is not in the best interests of their children.

In regards to Kyoto, I have to say I am very disappointed that New Zealand will not be participating.  It seems that John Key and his government do not value the clean green 100% pure image we have spent a fortune on advertising to the world for the last decade or more.  "We are a tiny, tiny part of world emissions..." says John Key - yes we are, but we need to make sure our tiny, tiny part of world emissions is dealt to.  If we don't do our bit, how can we expect to exert influence over growing industrial nations like India and China to get them to decrease their emissions?

So that really is just the bullshit that John Key said today.