King Colin: Urgent Debates — Teachers and Support Staff Payroll—Ministerial Inquiry into Novopay SystemText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Colin: Urgent Debates — Teachers and Support Staff Payroll—Ministerial Inquiry into Novopay System[Sitting date: 04 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10654. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]COLIN KING (National—Kaikōura): I think that to start off with it will be worth making a statement—a very common and well-used statement—and that is: something that has been made crooked is hard to make straight. When we stop and think about those original decisions it is easy to be wise afterwards as has been communicated in this debate. TheReport of the Ministerial Inquiry into the Novopay Project certainly does leave us with some very strong messages. As the member for the Kaikōura electorate I want to say a special thankyou to the teachers the principals and the boards of trustees of the 36 schools that have had to endure this whole process which once it started rolling out has been an incredibly bumpy ride to say the least.The ministerial inquiry has certainly taken its toll when you stop to think that we no longer have either of the two Secretaries for Education with the Ministry of Education. The problem with Novopay has also affected the public trust and confidence in the Ministry of Education and no doubt concerns us all as it does us on this side of the House. Given the weakness of the project governance and of the project leader it is clearly evident that the governance and leadership were not adequate and that a number of significant risks with the Ministry of Education and its vendors including Talent2 showed and displayed an overconfidence in approaching this situation.I would have to say that the complexity of anything like Novopay is well beyond the member for Kaikōura. However there are people who practise these fine arts and everybody who goes to work in New Zealand expects that on a given day—a predetermined day—they will be paid. For that not to happen is a disappointment and an utter failure on the part of any employer. Whatever came at the ministry and Talent2 they were totally unprepared for it. One’s thoughts do go out to those Ministers who had oversight in the way that information was relayed back to them. How do you cut through and ask those searching questions and get into areas that are dark and dingy and that people are espousing as being ready to go?When you talk about the school payroll it is complex but that is not an excuse. In the very essence of a systems analysis complexity should have been a fundamental part of the life cycle of the development of the Novopay system. The fact that it is now extensively customised is a concern. It needs to be very quickly stabilised. It is heartening though to see that 0.5 percent or less of mistakes have been recorded over the last quarter or two. However there is a long way to go to get out of the woods. We have just got to be very very aware of the lessons that we have learnt during this miserable process. There was no overall accountability for independent quality assurance—some very fundamental failures there. The project has cost $23.9 million more than was estimated and has a total cost to date of $56.8 million.So what have we learnt? Well we have learnt that implementing a system with the complexity of Novopay—of a payroll system involved with the education system—is incredibly difficult and high risk. We on this side of the House certainly welcome this report. We offer our sincere apologies for any difficulty frustration and hardship that have come upon the fraternity of teachers boards of trustees and schools as a whole. In conclusion I would like to make the comment as quoted by the Minister responsible for Novopay: “There are substantial lessons to be learned by the Ministry of Education in a number of areas which the Acting Secretary of Education is taking steps to address.” Thank you.