The Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to conduct a "major data cleansing exercise" to improve its payroll software, the Joint Personnel Administration system (JPA) following "significant" errors in the payment of allowances and expenses to service personnel.In March 2009, a Defence Select Committee report found thousands of members of the UK armed forces received incorrect salary payments because of a "catastrophic" computerised payroll system. Initiatives were put in place to improve the £245m system, including the correction of data in service personnel records, extended checking of expense claims and improvements in management information.
While the MoD has reduced the level of likely error from £145m last year, 11% of transactions tested by MoD staff still contained an error in allowances and expenses payments, "There remains significant further work to be done to ensure that a robust control environment is established and that processes are sound," said the report.
The JPA was implemented by IT supplier EDS, now HP, which has been linked to several problematic public sector IT projects, such as the Child Support Agency system.
