Phoenix by the numbers: 31,000 more cases revealed

New data from 25 federal departments and agencies reveal 31,000 more cases related to the government's Phoenix payroll system than were reported by the Auditor General last week, CBCNews has learned.

That brings the total number of outstanding, financial and non-financial Phoenix claims to 551,000.

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The new data comes from Treasury Board Secretariat and the newly added claims are for departments that do not use the services of the central pay centre in Miramichi, N.B.

"At this time, we have data from 25 of the reporting organizations, representing approximately 88,000 employees. This represents the vast majority of employees not serviced by the Pay Centre," said a statement from Treasury Board Secretariat.

"For the November 15th pay period, TBS found that there are just under 31,000 transactions greater than 30 days old, for approximately 18,000 employees."

The new figureshows about 20 per cent of workers in the departments that maintained their own compensation advisors are having problems with the Phoenix pay system.

By contrast, 46 other departments and their 212,000 employees are finding that 73per cent of their workers, who are paid through the centralized pay system in Miramichi, are having issues.

There may yet be other outstanding claims, but Treasury Board officials said "organizations with fewer than 50 employees, along with Institutions, Officers and Agents of Parliament, are not required to report" that data.

Last week, Auditor General Michael Ferguson saidthe total amount of Phoenix pay claims was more than half a billion dollars and counting. That is for both money owed to the government in overpayments and money owed to workers.

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