Highlights from the fall 2017 report of auditor general Michael Ferguson
OTTAWA — Some of the key findings from the fall 2017 report of federal auditor general Michael Ferguson:
— It is going to take years and “much more” than the original projected $540 million over three years to fix the chronic and ongoing problems with the snafu-stricken Phoenix public service pay system; the government may be “in a similar situation” to Australia, where a comparable problem has already cost more than $1.2 billion over eight years and still isn’t fixed.
— Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board failed to recognize early enough the depth and severity of the Phoenix problem, and failed to involve other departments in developing a timely plan to deal with the issue.
— As of June 2017, 18 months after Phoenix was first implemented, more than 150,000 public servants were waiting for a pay request to be processed, with the value of the outstanding errors at about $500 million.