By Bernadette Deka-Zulu (PhD Researcher-Public Enterprises)
IN the previous articles, we have discussed the importance of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), also, highlighting some examples on how BPR has changed enterprise and systems.
The impact of process re-engineering can never go unnoticed as shown in the previous article on Constituency Development Fund (CDF). In this article the impact of process re-engineering is further expanded putting to light another vital change that has improved the way of handling payroll in the civil service through the introduction of the e-payslip.
Before digitalising the process, the payroll system in the civil service was done manually and took days to compile. Over the years, the government has been its own hindrance to development as it spends too much money on administrative tasks that are not necessary and could be done by an automated digital system with a small labour force to monitor it.
CIVIL SERVICE PAYROLL BEFORE DIGITALISATION
The Zambian government before going digital had been using a manual payroll system since the 1950s. The system had been used to collect taxes, track employees’ salaries and pay out tax refunds.
The payroll system in Zambia before digitalisation was inefficient and did not offer the necessary support to employers and employees alike.
The system was prone to errors, employees had difficulties accessing their paychecks, while employers found it hard to reconcile their accounts and keep track of payments made.
Some government departments did not have the capacity to handle large amounts of data or handle the volume transaction processed by the system.
In the past there were no computers or internet access available in the country. However, with the introduction of new technology such as cellphones and tablets in recent years, it is possible for people to access the internet and view documents or make payments via mobile devices.
The Zambian government began trying out and implementing new payroll systems that had several notable features: most of the systems where digitalised, included a bank account number for each civil servant, and they also allowed businesses to access information about their employees’ salaries through an online portal.
As a result, both employers and the government were able to make payments more easily than before and save money on postage costs by sending cheques instead of having them picked up at the post office each month.
Before digitalisation, the payroll system was manual and there were two major challenges with this system. The first challenge was that employees had to fill out their payslips by hand and send them to the accounts’ office.
The second challenge was that government had to keep track of the employees’ wages for each month by using a paper and pen.
Since the payroll system before digitalisation in Zambia was mainly manual, it was prone to human error. Which led to delays in payment or even loss of money.
Many financial institutions also observed a common trend; since the payslips were manually done. Some civil servants developed a habit of duplicating their payslips to access loans and various benefits.
In addition, some civil servants did not get paid on time due to human error or corruption at different levels of government and financial institutions.
These are some of the disadvantages of the payroll system that Zambia faced before digitalisation:
Payment delay
High costs
Difficulty in cross checking
Fraud
Difficulty in collecting taxes on employees’ salary
SMART ZAMBIA
Following the various challenges faced with the previous payroll systems, and the introduction of new technology in the country.
In 2016, an initiative called Smart Zambia was established under government gazette No. 836 as an e-government division in the office of the president. Smart Zambia was aimed at transforming the country through information and communication technologies and deployment of electronic government services and processes for effective public service delivery.
The e-payslip is a new way of paying wages, salaries and taxes in Zambia, the e-payslip is a web-based application. With many people preferring it to paper based pay-slips.
This can be attributed to the fact that not all employers have the capacity to print and distribute paper pay-slips, and many employers prefer having their employees receive electronic pay-slips rather than paper ones.
Some of the benefits of using electronic pay-slips include:
Efficiency: Electronic pay-slips allow for quick and easy access to important information such as employees pay, deductions and leave entitlements, hence, reducing the number of times an employee must visit the employer as well as reducing paper work.
Increased security: Electronic pay-slips are more secure than paper ones because they don’t require printing or distributing physical copies – they can simply be accessed anytime
Greater Accuracy: Electronic pay-slips are easier to maintain because they don’t require any additional human intervention beyond what is required with other types of pay-slips (such as filling out forms)
After Smart Zambia introduced electronic pay-slips for all civil servants, in the first phase of the capturing exercise, the civil servants captured where able to receive their pay-slips through email.
IMPACT OF e-PAYSLIP ON THE CIVIL SERVICE
After e-payslip roll out, the government had been able to save K72 million on payslip printing and K68 million on the cost of paper annually.
Through the e-payslip, the government helped curb fraud and get rid of ghost workers (saving money from dead workers and those out of employment
Cutting out paper usage for pay-slips, indirectly tells us there will be a reduction in cutting down of trees used for paper and low energy usage, hence, complementing green environment initiatives.
In conclusion, the government’s payroll system was outdated and inefficient. The country had a poor record of paying its employees on time, which is one of the criteria that needs to be fulfilled to qualify for International Monetary Fund assisted programmes.
To solve these problems, Smart Zambia found a way to integrate human resource into its BPR. It was able to improve efficiency by optimising processes through technology and automation.
This allowed them to reduce costs while improving employee productivity and satisfaction levels inside government departments.
The reported fraudulent cases after the re-engineering of the payroll system had reduced and it was made easy for financial institutions to log into the system and fact check the credibility of the civil servants.
bernadettedekazulu@gmail.com
