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Auditor general’s take on Phoenix Pay: Five things you should know

* The audit determined that Phoenix Pay was launched in 2016 without proper testing or a contingency plan. The system lacked many pay processing functions, had significant security weaknesses and there was no plan to upgrade the underlying software.

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* The project was built on a false economy: rather than seek more money to do the job properly, Public Services and Procurement Canada cut project staff and reduced the number of software modules necessary to fully process pay.

* There was a profound failure to listen. Project executives at Public Services discounted warnings from other departments and from the Miramichi pay centre that Phoenix wasn’t ready to launch on Feb. 24, 2016.

* The failure of governance was equally egregious. The Phoenix Pay project office was unconstrained by any real oversight.

* The key recommendation by the auditor: government-wide projects will be compelled to do fully independent reviews well before launch.