Determined to learn from past mistakes, government officials worked for about a year on perfecting the payroll component of the new Enterprise Resource Management System (ERP) before rolling it out this week and sending more than 10,000 government employees to the bank Thursday with newly formatted paychecks.

When the ERP — designed to replace the government’s old financial management system (FMS) — launched in 2006, it was fraught with technical problems, and complaints abounded about the lack of training offered to employees working with the new software.

"It’s no secret there were issues revolving around the ERP — particularly around the financial modules," Finance Commissioner Angel Dawson said Friday. "People said everything was done hastily, that it was not studied before implementation, and we … were resolved not to repeat that again."

Dawson said the system’s human resources module — the repository for employee records — went live last October with little fanfare and even fewer complaints, while the payroll module was extensively tested before checks were processed this week.

"So what we did as we were running payroll on the old FMS is simultaneously do a test on the ERP," he explained. "It took several months as we ironed out all the bugs, but we wanted to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible."

That doesn’t mean that payday went off without any "hiccups," Dawson added. In particular, Dawson said that concerns have surfaced about what’s called a "transaction fee" that now appears on the checks of government employees whose bank loan payments are automatically deducted every two weeks.

"Let’s say an employee has a $50 loan — that money is deducted from each paycheck," Dawson explained, adding that Finance also collects, out of that $50, a 60-cent service charge.

"So what is remitted to the bank is $49.40, but the bank counts it as the full payment," he said. "Then that 60 cents goes into the Data Processing Revolving Fund, which is put toward any data processing expenses incurred by the department’s MIS division."

Dawson said it is not a new charge, but it never specifically appeared on employees’ checks before, which may have caused some confusion. Otherwise, the process has had about a 95 percent success rate — meaning that out of the 10,000 checks issued, the department received less than 500 complaints, he added.

"By and large we were successful with the rollout," Dawson said. "And this definitely moves us closer to our goal of having a credible financial management system, which will help in our financial reporting and decision making."

Payroll, for example, accounts for about 80 percent of the government’s expenditures. "So we’re capturing in real time 80 percent worth of expenses in a way that wasn’t being done before," Dawson said.

Meanwhile, each module is customized to fit the government’s unique system of operations, said Valdamier Collens, assistant finance commissioner. The human resources module, for example, has finally given rise to an electronic Notice of Personnel Action (NOPA), which moves through the system from the department level all the way to the governor for final approval, Collens said.

"We have a law on the books that says checks for employees working on St. Croix have to be printed on St. Croix," he added. "Off the shelf, the system doesn’t work that way, but now it does."

The next phases of the implementation may even be more technical, Dawson said later. Instead of just punching in at the office time clock, officials are looking at installing a fingerprint or eye-recognition system for employees that links directly to the ERP, automatically recording when an employee comes in and leaves work. For the most part, that data is presently entered manually by employees in each department and agency, Dawson said.

Dawson also proposed doing electronic reports to cut down on paper, and adding to the human resources module a way for employees to electronically update their deductions and health insurance plan.

"We’re on our way into the 21st century," he said. "Some private employers already offer these kind of services. There’s no reason why our employees shouldn’t have those conveniences as well."

Government employees are urged to talk to the payroll or human services division within their particular department or agency if there are any problems with their paychecks.