In an effort to address the Public Service payroll issues, the Department of Personnel Management is currently undertaking the upgrading of the Government of PNG Integrated Human Resource Payroll system – the Alesco payroll system from Version 12 (current) to Version 20.
Public Service Minister Joe Sungi said, Department of Personnel Management has taken the necessary steps to address the payroll issues that have plagued the system over the years.
“The version upgrade project currently being undertaken by DPM is one of the corrective measures being undertaken by the Department to address issues on the current payroll system, version 12 which has become obsolete and unsupported, requiring the upgrade to be undertaken immediately. DPM is well ahead in implementing these corrective measures and are in the process of putting together business rules and policies that will guide this upgraded version,” Minister Sungi said.
Minister Sungi announced that DPM has put in place a strategy – one of which is the Digital HR Transformation program 2023-2027 which encapsulates the pathway in which the Department will strive towards achieving this goal.
“It is a massive task and I am optimistic DPM is on the right track and has taken every step required to address the issue concerning the pay roll system which is highly commendable”.
The version upgrades exercise commenced in December 2022 with the purchase of the Version 20, with the first phase of the Project Mobilization commencing at the beginning of this year.
The version upgrade has four phases that is set to be completed at the end of 2023.
80 percent of the second phase has already been completed which involves the Installation of Version 20.
The third phase which is running concurrently with the second phase is the configuration of Pay Policy and business rules, which is the Digital HR Transformation component to automate the HR Business Processes. The fourth phase of the version upgrade will be the Training phase which is on the usage of the system.
The Public Service Minister has issued a directive for all Public Servants to ensure they have NID as one of the requirements to ensure there are no duplicate names or ghost names on the pay roll system.
“It will become mandatory for public servants to have an NID. This is one of the important features in the upgraded payroll version. I call on all agency heads and HR Managers to take ownership of this directive and drive it,” Sungi said.
