The Surreal Situation of Valencian Civil Servants’ Payroll
According to a recent audit by the Sindicatura de Comptes, the Valencian Community is caught in a bizarre scenario: nearly 6,800 civil servants and public employees rely on two incompatible computer systems for their payroll. These systems, SIGNO and GESPERJU2, are incapable of exchanging essential data, creating a precarious reliance on a single Microsoft Access application.
Understanding the Systems: SIGNO and GESPERJU2
The SIGN program serves as the primary internal system for managing payroll, covering civil servants across various sectors, including education and health. It executes critical functions such as payroll calculations, employee registrations, and direct debits.
Conversely, the GESPERJU2 program manages labor files for personnel in the Justice Administration, handling payrolls and permits for judges and officials. Despite their individual functionalities, these systems do not communicate, leaving officials vulnerable to payroll discrepancies.
An “Improvised” and Risky Solution
The only means to bridge the gap between these two systems is a makeshift Microsoft Access application, created by a single individual who is the only one with the knowledge to maintain and update it. As highlighted by The Economist, the timely and error-free processing of payroll largely depends on this rudimentary solution.
The audit emphasizes a concerning dependency: if this person were unavailable, it could jeopardize the entire payroll process. The situation is so dire that the administration relies heavily on an unofficial workaround, putting critical functions at serious risk.
Manual Processes and Increased Error Risk
The limitations of the Access application lead to a troubling reality. Some payroll incidents require manual intervention, increasing the chances of errors. The audit points out that calculations for specific payroll incidents—like arrears or salary supplements—are still performed manually. This raises the possibility of double salaries or other discrepancies going unnoticed due to the lack of communication between the systems.
The Promise of TALIA
Amidst this chaos, TALIA emerges as a proposed long-term solution aimed at unifying personnel management. The application promises to integrate payroll data and personnel information, mitigating the current fragmentation. Although TALIA’s first phase is underway, its full deployment will take years, and past implementation issues with other systems, like NEFIS, cast doubt on its timeline.
Until TALIA becomes operational, the Valencian Administration remains vulnerable, relying on outdated technology and one individual’s expertise to manage the payroll of almost 7,000 public servants. This situation serves as a cautionary tale of administrative inefficiency and dependency in the realm of public service management.