Statement on discrepancies of benefits and allowances

[Crispy Bacon]

1. The purpose of this email is to provide an update on the way forward with regards to discrepancies in the payment of specific benefits and allowances.

2. As previously communicated, the periodic review of various financial transactions identified discrepancies in the administration of Maternity and Parental benefits (MATA/PATA), Post Living Differential (PLD) and payment of environmental allowances to many serving and released Regular Force and Reserve Force Class C members.  These errors have resulted in both underpayments and overpayments of MATA/PATA and overpayments only of PLD and/or environmental allowances.  Where there have been underpayments, those payments will be made to the affected members shortly after the release of the Admin AIG in the coming weeks.  Where there have been overpayments, there is no intent to recover these funds. The Department and the CAF are seeking the required financial approvals and mechanisms to make such intent a reality in these three specific cases identified in the review.

3. With regard to issue #1 - Maternity and Parental Benefits (MATA/PATA):  Modifications to the calculation of MATA/PATA benefits for the Regular Force were implemented in the Central Computation Pay System (CCPS) effective 1 Oct 13. As a result, members affected by MATA/PATA pay discrepancies have had a credit or debit balance appear on their pay guides at the end of each month. Since 1 Oct 13, pay clerks have been required to manually intervene in order to stop the capture or credit of funds to individual members.  Technical direction concerning these transactions will be published by AIG message to pay offices in the coming weeks. Pay clerks will no longer need to manually intervene in affected members’ pay guides following the CCPS system change on 20 Jun 14 which will reverse the debit balances for all members affected by the MATA/PATA pay discrepancy.  This system change will not affect MATA/PATA credits posted into members’ accounts as these credits will be paid to affected members.

4. With regard to issue #2 - Post Living differential (PLD), as of 1 Jul 07, for locations where the amount of PLD was under 50 dollars a month, PLD was no longer to be paid. However, payments continued for those located in Kingston, London, and North Bay, Ontario; Nanaimo, British Columbia; and St-Hyacinthe, Quebec.  Consequently, 3,250 personnel were overpaid an average of 362 dollars and there is no intent to recover.

5. With regard to issue #3 - Land Duty Allowance (LDA), Paratroop Allowance (PARATPA) and Rescue Specialist Allowance (RESSPECA) were erroneously and simultaneously paid with hardship allowance (HA) and/or risk allowance (RA) since.  These errors were discovered in 2013.  Contrary to regulations, these benefits cannot be paid concurrently.  As a result, 1,197 personnel were overpaid an average of 231 dollars and the majority of these overpayments occurred while personnel were deployed to Afghanistan.  There is no intent to recover this money.

WAY FORWARD

6. An AIG message for MATA/PATA will be released shortly to provide Pay Offices with administrative instructions which will include directions for Pay Accounting Officers regarding the return of amounts that may have been collected from affected members.  During the summer, a second AIG message will be released advising how to obtain the list of personnel affected by PLD and environmental allowance overpayments and describing the action required by pay staff to correct these errors.  As stated above, these overpayments will not be recovered from individuals as the CAF is seeking the required financial approvals via a remission order.  This exceptional course of action will not become the norm when addressing overpayments.  For all other current overpayments not covered in this email, if a member receives a payment in excess of the entitlement due, the amount of the overpayment shall be refunded.

7. The DND and CAF are committed to the effective and efficient management of public money as well as to the care of our people.  CAF members continue to be supported by a robust compensation and benefits framework reflecting the unique nature and demands placed on them and their families.  These pay discrepancies have been thoroughly researched and were found to be systemic and due to the misinterpretation or the misapplication of policy. As such, we have sought a fiscally and legally responsible mechanism to apply so that individual members' pay would not be affected. Furthermore, to reduce the chance of such errors occurring again, compliance with applicable policies are verified across the CAF, pay reports are being scrutinized to correct errors more rapidly, and pay clerk training is being adjusted as required. Your continued patience as we work to resolve these issues is appreciated.

8. Request you ensure the above information is disseminated through your respective chains of command.

CMP

 

[donaldk]

Have to laugh at para 7, yes our sweet pay and benefits package is supported by IMHO is shoddy outdated HR/payroll management system.  Let the CMP horse and pony show begin!  Time for their computer programming analysts to dust off the punchcards and the magnetic tape reels.

 

[DAA]

Have to laugh at para 7, yes our sweet pay and benefits package is supported by IMHO is shoddy outdated HR/payroll management system.  Let the CMP horse and pony show begin!  Time for their computer programming analysts to dust off the punchcards and the magnetic tape reels.

The payroll system isn't that bad, the problem being, most people have no idea how to use it to it's full potential.  Hence the comment in the CMP email "and pay clerk training is being adjusted as required".

I was speaking with a group of 18 RMS Clks (Cpl to Sgt) one day, all of whom had access to and worked in CCPS daily and asked for a show of hands as to who used "RMDSF" to assist in their payroll functions.  Two people put their hands up.    :facepalm:

 

[MJP]

The payroll system isn't that bad, the problem being, most people have no idea how to use it to it's full potential.  Hence the comment in the CMP email "and pay clerk training is being adjusted as required".

I was speaking with a group of 18 RMS Clks (Cpl to Sgt) one day, all of whom had access to and worked in CCPS daily and asked for a show of hands as to who used "RMDSF" to assist in their payroll functions.  Two people put their hands up.    :facepalm:

While CCPS might be decent the overall pay system writ large is archaic.  Only in the CAF would it be acceptable to take large amounts of time to bring new employee onto the pay system.  Only in the CAF would it be acceptable to have a pay system (which as you said is not bad) that can't talk to a good percentage of their part time time employees causing a multitude of issues as people move between and round the two systems.  CCPS might be decent but our HR practices surrounding it quite frankly are not that stellar.

 

[DAA]

While CCPS might be decent the overall pay system writ large is archaic.  Only in the CAF would it be acceptable to take large amounts of time to bring new employee onto the pay system.  Only in the CAF would it be acceptable to have a pay system (which as you said is not bad) that can't talk to a good percentage of their part time time employees causing a multitude of issues as people move between and round the two systems.  CCPS might be decent but our HR practices surrounding it quite frankly are not that stellar.

Bringing "new" hires into CCPS is automated, it's what happens after the account is created that is the problem.  And there are "two" distinct pay systems within the CF.  CCPS (Reg F) and RPSR (Res F), neither interact.  From what I understand, the new "Guardian" system is suppose to be somewhat all encompassing but my knowledge of Guardian is very limited at this time, so I really don't know.

I totally agree with your comment about HR practices.  But it goes back to the issue of "training".  There is little or no training available, to those who suddenly find themselves put into a position where they now have the ability to "approve" payroll transactions.  On top of that, there is no provision for local area audit on a regular basis to prevent over/under payments.  Someone (usually the IC PON) has to step up and take it upon themself, to at least try and monitor just what is going on and that doesn't always, if ever, happen.  Good example, was the email I saw this week, initiated from DMPAP, sent to a certain Base (and it was probably CF wide but area specific), listing hundreds of transactions, where no payroll source documents had been submitted for archiving and this process, is suppose to be done "daily", hence the report title "Daily Documents for Archive", which obviously wasn't being run let alone adhered to.      :facepalm:    Another case, where someone was thrown into a job, given no training other than an account and privileges.....

 

[dapaterson]

Guardian will appear in several iterations.

First will be the replacement of the core HR system, moving from PeopleSoft 7.5 (from 1998) to PeopleSoft 9.1.

With the new HR system in place, payroll will be moved from the current two custom applications will be retired and replaced with a commercial payroll software.  Both CCPS and RPSR are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain; every time the CRA or a provincial government changes income taxes, they need to be updated.  Finding the COBOL programmers for CCPS and IBM WebSphere programmers for RPSR is becoming increasingly difficult (and expensive); and with a well aged code base, the systems are increasingly fragile..

 

[DAA]

Guardian will appear in several iterations.

First will be the replacement of the core HR system, moving from PeopleSoft 7.5 (from 1998) to PeopleSoft 9.1.

With the new HR system in place, payroll will be moved from the current two custom applications will be retired and replaced with a commercial payroll software.  Both CCPS and RPSR are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain; every time the CRA or a provincial government changes income taxes, they need to be updated.  Finding the COBOL programmers for CCPS and IBM WebSphere programmers for RPSR is becoming increasingly difficult (and expensive); and with a well aged code base, the systems are increasingly fragile..

Any idea on what the new payroll platform will be?

 

[dapaterson]

Any idea on what the new payroll platform will be?

According to a Request for Info to industry in 2013, Oracle PeopleSoft Payroll North America.

https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-XE-668-26033

 

[DAA]

According to a Request for Info to industry in 2013, Oracle PeopleSoft Payroll North America.

https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-XE-668-26033

So it will be part of Guardian but not until later.  Interesting.  The same would most likely hold true for some of the other components as well.

Thanks.