If JPA's the answer, what was the question???

[Rather be Gardening]

Travel back in the mists of time to when JPA was just a glitter in the B word's eye..... and then to JPA's unveiling ceremony. All the great and good are there, along with the mandatory good Fairy Godmother. She steps towards the mainframe, raises her wand and says "I will give you 3 great gifts to help you be of service to those wonderful folk in the RAF and they are...", but horror of horrors, before she can continue the (also mandatory) bad Fairy Godmother shoulders her way through the throng, blasts the good FG to atoms and says,

"Blow this for a game of soldiers (and indeed, they will be cursed too, all in good time).... Just to make sure you're **** all use to anyone, I give you the following qualities. Feel free to inflict them as you see fit:
The logical processes and lucidity of John Prescott,
The trustworthiness of King Herod in an under-3s playgroup,
and the customer-pleasing attributes of the Sinclair C5".

*************************************************
Now, peeps, having had the doubtful pleasure of JPA's acquaintance, what other elements could have gone into its spawning?

[Data-Lynx]

www.computing.co.uk (http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2228342/military-arms-payment-system-4284870) reported on Friday that: The armed forces’ £100m Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) programme has failed to meet four of the seven key targets set for the scheme this year, including those on pay accuracy, timeliness of payments and cost reductions, decreasing planned savings by around £5m.
It seems the original question in this thread remains valid.

[Lurking123]

I don't recollect the question, but the answer they wanted was 'fish'.:}

[Wader2]

It met three? Good grief.

“Missing the targets was the result of organisational change rather than problems with the technology.”

Oh, that's all right then. Once the military have their orgainsational changes complete there will be no problems.

“In September every time someone is reverted from a local or acting rank they have been put back to the lowest increment level of their proper rank. In some instances this has meant that a lance corporal who has been serving for six years is reverted and somehow put onto a recruit’s wage,”

Not a real problem of course. They will get it all back


eventually


after innumerable letters to bank managers, finance companies credit reference agencies etc.

Imagine the credit reference agencies - loan risk, 50-50, serviceman with job security but may default on loans every few months but will pay eventually when pay is restored.

[TyroPicard]

Surely the key targets were wrongly selected...

[reds & greens]

If "JPA" is the answer
Then surely the question was...
"What will be an additional straw to add to the burden of the camels back"? :(

[MG]

I found out in August that I'd been on a frozen increment for 2 years for no good reason. Got it sorted, expected to see the backpay of £2000 this month! Yay!
Out of £2000, £800 had gone in tax, which I'd steeled myself against. What I hadn't thought about was that, apparently, the PAYE rules changed in September and another £550 went to that. so, out of £2000, I saw about £600. Hoo-rah!
I've got iSupport (Do Apple know about this?) looking into in as the pay owed (and PAYE handed over) would, ordinarily, have been paid before the PAYE rule-change, therefore I argue that I shouldn't have to suffer. We'll see; I haven't ordered the Aston just yet!

[airborne_artist]

MG - I can not see how these changes in Sep 0 (http://www.grant-thornton.co.uk/tax/tax_stories/changes_to_paye_codes_from_7_s.aspx)8 made any difference, and how they explain a near doubling of the tax-take in your back pay. As you say, they would not apply to back pay in any event.

"The changes will not affect higher rate taxpayers at all. However, a basic rate taxpayer [on £20,000 pa] will see a difference of £120/month less tax."

[MG]

Thanks A-A, I'll keep this to hand for when I finally get my reply from iSupport.

[sisemen]

Worry not mein leibchins. The good fairy (aka the new CAS) having grappled with the system for the past year will, on taking supreme office, and being more than acutely aware of the nastiness of the bad fairy, wave his magic wand and put the world to rights once again. For he is a member of the two-winged master fairies who are omnipotent beings and not the veritable 'blunty' who is castigated for inflicting turmoil and strife on the masses. For according to the oracle of the PPRuNe he is truly a mighty being who can wrought miracles bringing beaming smiles to all and sundry once more.


.....well, I didn't start the fairy story lark.

[Wader2]

I hear a rumour that there is a shortage of Pers Admin. Now what was that release again?

and cutting HR staff numbers by 20 per cent.

Now I would not be surprised if the 2 numbers were adjacent.

[ThreadBaron]

Is the gap between the first post of the thread (28 Sep 2006) and its questions, and the first response to it (yesterday) in anyway synonymous to the potent malaise that has affected JPA since inception?:confused:

[Lurking123]

No. The chap posted it using DII and it took 2 years to get through the server.

[rej]

I think the 3 targets that JPA met were as follows:

making it easy to book leave whilst getting away without telling anyone where you are really going:ok:

Employing people at JPAC who have no real intention of answering your questions:ugh:

Meeting the MOD's continuing target to reduce quality of life:{

apart from that it is fairly easy to submit financial claims even though you need a filing cabinet in which to store all the damn receipts for the next only-knows years. :\

[Grabbers]

If the answer is JPA, surely the question must be: What industry rejected piece of hardware that is so clearly unfit for any purpose can I procure, thus sealing my non-executive directorship of a lucrative MoD partnership?