€150 million down the HSE black hole.

I have no problem with the HSE spending €150 million on a payroll system. After all one in twenty in the entire workforce works in the health service. That’s a lot of people so the savings to the exchequer in admin costs should be huge.
The problem I have is that the sort of basic steps that have been outlined by a bunch of people on AAM were not gone through. Someone somewhere was paid to ask questions and steer this project through. It is simple stuff like, “Where are we starting, what do we have at the moment?” and “Where do we want to end up?”
It seems that the second question was asked, but not the first.
From my very limited knowledge of project management defining that start point and laying the ground work is as important, if not more important, than knowing where you want to end up.
In simple terms it’s like starting to build a house before you clear the access to your site.
So it’s back to my first question; who will be held accountable for this or will we pay another bunch of consultants or a barrister another bundle of money to write a report while the government wait for the heat to go out of this one as well.

I also believe that we are doomed to repeat this fiasco throughout the civil/public sector as no government will be able to change the culture of waste and lack of accountability that exists there.

Perspective from the UK - UK government may sue EDS over tax credits

Tarfhead said: Seems like the individual health boards existed as independent fiefdoms and that the way in which staff were graded and rewarded in one hospital was materially different to how one in another health board area was managed.

Cuchulainn siad: I dont understand how staff in different health boards were on different pay and conditons than similar staff employed in the other health boards.

I worked for the Health Service for over 10 years after returning from abroad. I could not believe what went on. For a start, I was working in a specialised job which didn't 'exist' - ie wasn't a formal grade. There were a few of us scattered around the country with up to 6 people in one Health Board, while other HB's might only have 1 or 2. We were mostly on different grades; when 2 of us had the same grade, there would be differences in conditions (which meant we were paid differently due to shift premiums) and there were wild differences in the allowances we were paid. The differences in pay for the same work were in the thousands in annual pay. It was completely mad and seemed to depend on your boss. I couldn't believe it. The unions weren't interested because they werenn't interested in representing one person - maybe they thought someone else might lose out, or maybe they just represented the majority. (Obviously I was one of the lower paid!) With the reforms, I thought everything had been straightened out as we were all re-graded to the new grade. I thought too soon. Conditions and allowances differences still exist!