AG addresses workers' concerns of payment delays

Koforidua, Feb. 8, GNA - The Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) has assured workers whose promotional arrears were still outstanding that they would soon be paid as soon as data was approved after a special audit.

Mr Christian Tetteh Sottie, Controller and Accountant General, said there were initial delays because the Integrated Personnel Payroll Database (IPPD) software was unable to recognize the data of the affected people due to the absence of their employee history, which had not been loaded from an old IPPD into a new version. He explained that problems in relation to payroll delivery came about as a result of the change over from the IPPD software to a more modern and worldwide oracle based programme.

Mr Sottie, who was speaking at a workers' forum in Koforidua on Thursday said the switch to a new software was to enable the Department accurately keep track of remunerations of employees and effectively process payroll data and reports through simulations and projections. He said despite all those envisaged advantages, the installation and implementation of the new software posed the greatest challenge not only to the consultants who supervised its operationalisation, but also to the Department's payroll administration.

Mr Sottie said the inability of the department to meet advertised scheduled pay dates in the later part of 2006 and the first half of 2007 was mainly due to the migration to the new software and also power outages during that period.

He said during payroll runs, when the power went off the servers shut down and sometimes it took the effort of the dealers to restart the servers.

This caused a lot of disruptions and to the extent that work done was lost, he said, adding that a generator was later installed in May 2007, "and since then we have been on target meeting our payment dates". Mr Sottie appealed to workers to see the Department as partners and co-operate with it through regular feedback. This, he said, would enable the Department to improve its total service delivery, adding that resorting to radio stations and demonstrations should be the last option only when all other redress avenues had been exhausted and deemed failed. Mr Sottie urged workers to report recalcitrant and indiscipline staff to management for appropriate sanctions and that a payroll help desk had been established to promptly assist employees with problems.