SENATE
HOUSE
JOINT
BILL STATUS
STATE LAW
REPORTS
EDUCATIONAL
CONTACT
home
home

Member's Press Release

Release Date: 11/03/2015
Contact: Speaker Tim Armstead (304) 340-3210 and President Bill Cole (304) 357-7801

President Cole ; ; Tim Armstead

Statement from Speaker Armstead, President Cole on Biweekly Pay Delay

Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, and House Speaker Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, issued the following joint statement in response to this morning's meeting of the state Enterprise Resource Planning Board, which voted to delay further implementation of biweekly state employee pay in order to evaluate concerns with the process:

"We thank Governor Tomblin and Treasurer Perdue for their actions this morning halting further implementation of this costly payroll system, and we look forward to continuing to work with them in a bipartisan manner to ensure our state employees are paid fairly and accurately.

The fact that we have spent more than $123 million on a software system that apparently can't handle an additional decimal point is simply beyond the pale, and for the Auditor to point political fingers in this matter is equally disturbing. This is not about politics, this is about math, and the Auditor's figures simply do not add up. Legislative leadership has spoken out, the Treasurer and Governor have voiced concerns and members of the judiciary are also considering legal action. If members of all three branches of government have concerns, it is simply not a political issue.

The fact is, the wvOASIS system has been an overpriced and poorly implemented program since long before Republicans took the majority and it's about time we get answers to address these important concerns.

Also, the Auditor's statement that we're now spending 'dollars to chase a few pennies' is reckless, if not downright wrong. First, his office has consistently refused to provide information about how much a fix would cost. And more importantly, we feel the millions of dollars in additional costs that our legislative audit found this conversion would create amounts to much more than 'a few pennies.' To suggest such an amount of money is insignificant or not substantial -- particularly in these trying budgetary times -- is shockingly out of touch."


Senate News Releases | House News Releases

This Web site is maintained by the West Virginia Legislature's Office of Reference & Information.  |  Terms of Use  |   Email WebmasterWebmaster   |   © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **