Pay system not properly tested: report

Queensland Health's bungled new payroll system was not properly tested and was rolled out without a back-up plan to deal with failures, an Auditor-General's report says.

Responsibility for implementing the system, which has left thousands of workers incorrectly paid, was also unclear, Auditor-General Glenn Poole found.

Mr Poole's report on the fiasco, tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, identified a raft of problems with the system rolled out on March 24.

He found testing before the system's "go-live" date was inadequate, with no contingency plan in place to address problems as they emerged.

The final product did not meet the health department's needs, he said.

And the roles and responsibilities of the public works and health departments, which worked together on the project, were unclear and caused confusion, he said.

The absence of a periodic review of the business needs contributed to difficulties with system testing, he said.

The report found the project board decided to go live with the system, despite risks being pointed out to them.

Among the board's decisions was to change the definition of severity one and severity two defects so the project could pass exit criteria.

During testing, the board decided not to undertake a full parallel pay run test because of the size and complexity of the task.

In January, the testing company suggested the rollout be delayed until a full system and integration test was completed.

If that test was not done, the company said the board would have to accept the risk that untested scenarios might not go to plan.

The board chose to accept that risk over delaying the rollout, the report said.

It made several recommendations that should be followed in future payroll system changes.

They included clear lines of accountability, and contingency plans to deal with unexpected issues.

The report also recommends that award structures be simplified prior to new payroll systems to remove complexities that affect efficient pay processes.

Queensland Health workers come under 13 awards and multiple industrial agreements that provide for 200 different allowances.

"To mitigate the risk of payroll inaccuracies, simplification of award structures and pay rules need to be considered," it said.

The Auditor-General also recommended that current action to stabilise payroll and rostering systems continue.

Any technological changes should be properly controlled and tested, he said.

Meanwhile, Queensland Health is refusing to comment on reports that two senior Queensland Health bureaucrats have been sacked over the payroll bungle.

Deputy director general, Michael Kalimnios, and corporate services executive director, Adrian Shea, received notices of contract termination on Monday night, the Courier Mail reports.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Paul Lucas and a spokeswoman for Queensland Health both refused to comment.

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