NASSAU, BAHAMAS- Salary and payroll errors are costing the government roughly $120 million per year according to Financial Secretary Simon Wilson.

Wilson made the revelation yesterday at the Oracle Fusion ERP system training and professional development workshop at the National training Agency (NTA) yesterday. According to Wilson, the issues due in large part to the fact that the government operates separate systems for payroll, budget and final accounts as well as general ledger, creating a difficult and time consuming process.  

He noted that the Oracle payroll  system, human resource as well as other key features are expected to provide significant savings to the government. The new platform which will capture all government employees is expected to launch in early 2024.

"Our payroll accounts for 60 percent of the government's budget and if we have an error rate of 10 percent that's roughly $120 million. That's why this is important. It's those small errors, over payments, underpayments and so forth. You miminize those errors and you can have tremendous savings for the government," said Wilson. 

According to the Financial Secretary, some employees have received a salary for years despite the government not being able to account for them or their work. The he said is among several issues the government hopes to address with the new digital system.

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