Hawaii prison shelves new payroll system

After $3 million US investment, state can't get new system to work properly because of complicated staffing issues

A prison in Hawaii has shelved its brand-new payroll system because it couldn’t get it to work properly, according to KITV news, the ABC television affiliate in Hawaii.

Officials decided to pull the new system at Oahu Community Correctional Centre after an investment of $3 million US.

The KRONOS system was installed as a pilot project, with hopes it would pave the way for the rest of the public-sector in the state, according to KITV. But the failure has proven just how hard it will be to make the public payroll in Hawaii more efficient.

“It couldn’t capture a lot of information,” said Francis Sequiera, the prison’s warden. “There was double and triple work, missing information.”

Employees kept getting shortchanged on their paycheques, and in October the prison went back to the old system.

“There’s a lot of frustration and confusion among the staff,” Sequiera told KITV.

But Hawaii isn’t abandoning the idea just yet. Sequiera said they’re still trying to tweak the system and do everything they can to get it to work. Hawaii is not blaming KRONOS for the problem. The state’s comptroller said the real issue is Hawaii’s extremely complicated personnel system, multiple union contracts, overtime and shift differentials.

KITV said the state is negotiating with KRONOS to see if the system can work and at what cost.

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