news
RAF's new pay system nosedives
Scotland on Sunday, 1, p 10
04-06-2006
By Brian Brady Westminster Editor
HUNDREDS of Royal Air Force pilots and ground crew have found a new enemy in a catalogue of computer blunders that has left them without pay and valuable expenses.
The "teething problems" with the new computer payroll system, designed to improve payments to the RAF's 48,000 servicemen and women, has forced some to dip into savings or rely on families for support.
The Joint Administration System, introduced less than two months ago, has quickly descended into farce as baffled personnel received too much money, too little or none at all.
The multi-million pound network, provided by American computer giant EDS, continually crashed as frustrated pilots, air and ground crews tried to log on to track down payments.
Glasgow-based helpline workers were besieged with angry calls and hundreds of complaints have been posted on the pilots' own unofficial websites.
One frustrated airman was shocked to read on his pay-slip that he had paid almost GBP 1000 to charity last month.
"I viewed my pay statement yesterday and it was completely screwed up," he said. "Charity contributions had caused deductions of GBP 980. After phoning about it a smug civvy took great delight in telling me that it was being fixed and not to bother them until next week... before promptly hanging up."
The Ministry of Defence now faces demands to launch an investigation into what went wrong before the same system is rolled out to the Royal Navy and Army.
Ministers have said there are no plans to seek compensation in the latest public sector IT fiasco to embarrass the Government. EDS is the firm responsible for past Labour embarrassments including the controversial Pension Credit computer system and software for child support payments.
Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton recently faced calls to pull the plug on the GBP 456m CSA computer system after a raft of blunders, while EDS was forced to compensate the Government when more than GBP 130m was accidentally overpaid to pensioners.
Shadow defence secretary Dr Liam Fox has urged the Government to ensure other personnel will not be left high and dry by the roll-out.
He said: "This sounds like yet another administration disaster zone that we have become used to under the current Government. Our forces have enough to deal with without the added burden of administrative incompetence."
EDS declined to comment last night, but officials at the MoD insisted that "early technical issues" had been anticipated because of the "scale and complexity" of the system.