47 MDAs Get Clearance for Payment of Salaries Under New Compensation System

Forty-seven of 52 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have received clearance for the payment of salaries under the new compensation system for public-sector workers.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, made the disclosure during a press conference held at the Ministry’s Heroes Circle Office, on December 21.

Dr. Clarke, however, informed that there are five MDAs, where the quality control procedures are still under way.

The five affected MDAs include Bellevue Hospital, the Western Regional Health Authority, Southern Regional Health Authority, Houses of Parliament and the administrative staff at the Ministry of Education and Youth.

“The Transformation Implementation Unit (TIU) is still working on the remaining five and my expectation is with the cooperation of these entities… they will also be cleared. The issues have been reported on and the expectation is they will be resolved today,” Dr. Clarke said.

The Minister further informed that for one ministry, the payroll system is unable to calculate the arrears.

“We have 13 payroll systems across the government, and we really should have one enterprise software system that has full functionality and capability. The Government is engaged in a transformation process to update, upgrade, replace the other 12 software payroll systems with MyHR+, which has incredible functionality and is a system that can take us forward,” Dr. Clarke said.

“In one ministry… which only affects 183 employees, their particular payroll system is unable to process the arrear calculations. So, the decision has been made and employees in that ministry have all been notified that, rather than work with a system that is unable to process the arrears payment… the December payment will be made today, and the arrears payment will follow,” he added.

Meanwhile, Dr. Clarke said members of the TIU have been working long hours over the past two to three weeks, to put the Government in a place to implement the new compensation system.

The Minister informed that the process involved the training of payroll officers by the TIU.

“As far as I have been able to determine, there is no issue with what the new pay is. It is very straightforward to go from where you are in the old system to where you are in the new system. Where we have had challenges and where the training has really been required is in how you calculate the arrears that would have been owed having agreed to have the new system being implemented with an effective date of April 1, 2022,” Dr. Clarke said.

The Government is implementing a new compensation system for the public sector. Before the implementation of the new system, the public sector had more than 325 grade levels and 185 allowances.