Frontline staff at the Ministry of Community and Social Services say they are overwhelmed with the province’s $245-million computer system.
A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed numerous complaints about the flawed Social Assistance Management System (SAMS) used to issue welfare and disability payments. The report, however, offered no conclusions about the government’s handling of the new system.
Since its launch SAMS has suffered issues such as queuing up $20 million in welfare and disability support overpayments in December. The government has now put aside an additional $5-million to help with the costs associated with the programs problems, including staff overtime.
However, despite these measures the report found that staff feel those efforts have led to even more problems, and that weekly memos are causing headaches.
"Staff are so overwhelmed that even reading the fixes is a time," the report says.
The opposition parties called for Community and Social Services Minister Helena Jaczek to resign over what they call the SAMS debacle. She said the most important function of the system is ensuring that payments are made to vulnerable families, and said there have now been five "successful" pay runs.
