By Jacob Nakamura
GovGuam's approximately 4,000 line agency employees won't see a paycheck until Monday, according to the Department of Administration.
The government's antiquated financial system, the AS400, has failed. This is the reason paychecks are late.
"While cash is in the bank to make payroll governmentwide, late Wednesday afternoon the decades-old AS400 payroll system used by the Department of Administration (DOA) failed," according to a statement from DOA.
"DOA personnel and staff from the Office of Technology worked though the holiday to recover the data needed to make payroll. This system failure, however, will result in the delayed issuance of payroll. Given the time that financial institutions must have to receive payment data and post these payments correctly, our goal is to resolve this issue by or before Monday afternoon." - DOA statement
Most employees receive their pay checks via direct deposit. Many have their bills deducted either through payroll deduction, or through their bank. The tardiness of today's payroll will certainly cause issues with mortgages, car payments, and credit card payments. The government is asking banks and other creditors for leniency with its employees, considering the payroll issue is not the employees's fault.
"We humbly ask that all financial institutions provide our employees with appropriate leeway regarding their payroll and account deductions," the DOA statement reads. "Once payroll is met, DOA will be taking immediate steps to ensure this type of system failure never occurs again."
