Payroll glitches caused by same person

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The payroll glitch that held up the paychecks for state workers twice last month, was caused by human error and it's the same employee.

To make sure it doesn't happen again, the state is hiring a contractor for $198,000 dollars for six months work. The focus will be training four employees.   

State Controller, Ricky Bejarano and the Sect. of the Department of Finance and Administration, Tom Clifford met with reporters Tuesday.

The first problem surfaced in early June and that was the result of the one payroll employee sending funds to Wells Fargo, one day late.  It impacted all 22,000 state workers. 

The second glitch impacted about 8,000 employees at the end of June. In that case, checks with changes like sick time or vacation were marked as paid.

DFA is not releasing the name of the employee behind the payroll glitches or if he will be disciplined in any way.

The state paid the software developer, Oracle, $48,000 to check the system, only to find out it was human error.  The contractor will cross-train four employees on the payroll system.

The state bought this software program back in 2006 and it has never been updated and no word on how much that will cost.