After the recent mistake in payment of the Queensland Health staff much has been debated. In this huge error nearly 3000 people working for QH have been left un-paid or underpaid.
Health Minister Paul Lucas is unable to guarantee that payments next week will be proper and thus experts have come in from Canada to fix the error. KPMG is the company that is given the responsibility to investigate the issue and two software experts from Canada have come to put things right. Mr. Lucas assured this Friday that "every possible resource" was being thrown at the problem.
When asked about the status of the system next week he said, “I don't think it's acceptable that anyone receive little or no pay or indeed doesn't receive proper pay, whether it's today or next week…I will continue to apologies for this situation because it is wrong that it happened.” While apologizing he also accepted that the QH payroll was complex. He said, “When the payroll comes, of course if people have got any issues or adjustments we'll have plans in place for them to contact people…It is our intention to get as perfect a payroll as possible.”
Queensland Health director-general Mick Reid has also accepted the responsibility for the whole bungle and said he might be have to step down from office for this but his first “task” would be to fix this. Mr. Lucas said, “Clearly people signed off and certified that this system was ready to go and... Mick is entitled to rely on people employed to do these things… We'll see what the review turns up.”
According to Mr. Lucas, a lot depends on the KPMG findings and there will be a review of the contracts with the companies that made the software after the relapse of the reports that is expected soon.