Would you like a side of irony with your karma?

Well! What a week! There has been lots happening on the Novopay front and while it's not necessarily good news I have found some of the information to come out this week somewhat amusing.

This week I have read about the ministers who signed off on Novopay; Hekia Parata, Bill English and Craig Foss. They gave the green light on this despite being aware that the system had 147 known issues, and the small amount of testing which had been done had shown indications that there could be issues. The project was already delayed, over budget and under delivering, so makes sense to sign off on it, right? Prime Minister John Key defended his ministers by stating that they had received "expert" advice telling them to go live with the system, although he conceded that looking back now that perhaps wasn't the best advice. Indeed Mr Key seems keen to protect the three ministers at fault; Ms Parata and Mr English have not received any public reprimand from Mr Key and both have retained their portfolios through a recent cabinet reshuffle. Ms Parata has even been described by Mr Key as a smooth communicator. I know. I nearly spat juice all over my computer screen when I read that too. Mr Foss was originally handed the responsibility for sorting out Novopay (to free up Ms Parata) but has had that task revoked and Steven Joyce will be handling the matter henceforth. Mr Foss is arguably the most junior and least visible of the three ministers to sign off on Novopay and is the only minister who seems to have suffered, having also been stripped of his Associate Education Minister title.

The details of how much is currently owed to teachers has also been made public. A staggering $11.8 million is still owing to 14,470 teachers, and Mr Joyce has been kind enough to remind us that these issues will not be sorted any time soon. I am one of those 14,470 teachers and personally I'm getting a little bit sick of hearing that the issues are expected to be on-going. I'm not the worst case either, the amount owing to me is not extreme; but this just highlights to me how horrible the entire experience must be if you are owed a large amount of money. On a daily basis I feel irritated and frustrated that my money has not been paid, and I have nothing but sympathy for others in the same situation.

In other news the Ministry of Education employees found themselves out of pocket a few days ago, when their pay failed to go through. Remember that Ministry staff are not paid by the Novopay system, so this is a separate issue entirely. According to the Ministry the issue was caused when the incorrect date was entered for the pay run, but not to worry, because they had begun processing manual payments to bank accounts that morning. Well if that isn't a kick in the gut I don't know what is. The Ministry staff don't get paid, but the issue is sorted the same day it arises, I don't get paid and the issue isn't sorted for months. Fantastic. I certainly wouldn't wish the Novopay pay issues on anyone, it's been horribly stressful in a way no one should have to experience; and I know that the individual people who work at the Ministry aren't at fault for the debacle but I did find the whole situation a little bit ironic. Indeed Ms Parata seemed to see the funny side of the situation; when questioned about the payment failure she reported said "Yeah, karma, eh?" which was immediately slammed as an insensitive thing to say (which it was). Just keep digging Ms Parata!

As always any questions can be left in the comments section below, see you next time!