The Phoenix pay system’s days are numbered. Here’s why it has to go.

Federal Budget 2018 FULL COVERAGE »

This Phoenix will not be rising. The federal government’s beleaguered payroll system, which has resulted in thousands of employees being underpaid, overpaid or simply not paid at all, was sentenced to the chopping block in the 2018 budget.

The IT project, initiated by the previous Conservative government primarily as a cost-saving measure and launched by the Liberals in 2016, has already vastly outflown its initial budget. A sum of $460 million had already been committed to implement and fix Phoenix, and the budget adds another $431 million. But it also earmarks $16 million to pay to find “a way forward for a new pay system.”

Here’s what’s wrong with the government’s very expensive new pay system.

MORE ABOUT PHOENIX PAY SYSTEM:

• Fixing Phoenix pay system will cost over $540 million, says auditor
• Ottawa’s public service pay system problems worsen
• Goodale to head committee created to fix Phoenix pay problems
• Feds want to know about Phoenix pay problems before tax season
• No one person to blame for federal Phoenix pay system problems
• Feds blow deadline to fix payroll debacle
• Payday problems for civil servants to be resolved by October
• Federal minister visits troubled Phoenix payroll offices in New Brunswick