A new task force charged with reforming the Defence Force payroll system has been announced by the Minister for Defence Personnel, Greg Combet.
Mr Combet said the ADF Payroll Task Force and other reforms would help fix current deficiencies in the system.
“Continuing problems in the area of pay for the ADF are unacceptable to the Government,” Mr Combet said.
“It is also unacceptable to the individuals and their families who are paid incorrectly, and who are required to enter into repayment arrangements.
Task force to solve ADF problems
“The Government understands that the volume of manual transactions, which last year amounted to over 3 million, means human error is always a possibility. But the number of incorrect payments is unacceptable.”
He said the Task Force would drive the ongoing reform of the ADF pay and personnel processes and would report to Ministers on a monthly basis.
He said a key reform was the consolidation of all military payroll processing under one area of responsibility, which was expected to be implemented within 18 months.
The Task Force is to be established within the next three months and will be co-chaired by Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant General David Hurley and Deputy Secretary (Defence Support), Martin Bowles.
Mr Combet said the Task Force would have responsibility for a number of initiatives, including establishing a small specialist deployed civilian payroll administration cell to ensure consistency between the in-theatre and in-country payroll processing.
Quality assurance checks of International Campaign Allowance payments would also be made, while a common customer access channel will be promoted, including the 1800 DEFENCE number for members and their families to contact about pay related issues.
Mr Combet said there would be a review of the payment of deployed allowances to ensure members were being paid correctly, and that quality assurance processes would be improved.
“The initial steps of the Task Force will include remediating pay issues that arise for individual ADF members, including the recent overpayment of the International Campaign Allowance,” he said.
“Additionally, the Government has endorsed a long term plan which would replace Defence’s current three pay systems with a more modern personnel ICT system.
“This will result in complex transactions and manual processing being undertaken by one central authority, not fragmented as is currently the case.”
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