❓ A parliamentary question regarding the use of outsourced payroll management companies by departments within the Emergency Services and Corrective Services portfolios. The response details the companies used, costs, data provided, and any reported privacy breaches.
AnsweredQoN 3587Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
In the 2017-18 financial year has any department, agencies, commissions or Government Trading Enterprises (GTE) within the Minister's portfolio of responsibilities utilised an outsourced payroll management company and if so: (a) What outsourced payroll company was used and in what country are they based; (b) What is the estimated cost of utilising this outsourced option; (c) What data is provided to this outsourced payroll company in order to process payroll (i.e. names, addresses, bank details); and (d) Is the Minister or Agency aware of any privacy breaches in relation to the data provided to this outsourced payroll company: (i) If so, what is the nature of that breach, including dates of released data and details of the data released?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
18 September 2018
Responded by
Minister for Emergency Services; Corrective Services
Response time
9 days
The Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services is clusted with other smaller agencies to make up 100 employees. This is the threshold which makes outsourcing payroll services economical.
(a) Ascender. The team that supports our needs is based in Bentley, Western Australia.
(b) $13k annually for 20 staff.
(c) All relevant employee details including:
Name
Address
DOB
FBT reportable annually
Place of birth
Superannuation provider
Other
(d) None. (i) not applicable.
The Department of Justice advises:
(a) Ascender Pay Pty Ltd, Australia.
The contract for Attorney General is an in-house payroll processing model where the Department updates and processes the payroll in-house, with Ascender providing software as a service (SaaS) database server hosting arrangements.
The Department of Justice currently has two Payroll and HR Management System contractual arrangements. The contract for Corrective Services is a largely outsourced model where Ascender updates the employee details, processes the payroll and provides software as a service (SaaS) database server hosting arrangements.
(b) $2,577,790 for Corrective Services. $535,954 for Attorney General.
(c) All required employee data is securely stored in the Ascender Human Resources Management System (HRMS) required to process the payroll and provide the Department of Justice with human resource reporting and analytics. This includes: names, addresses, bank account details, leave details, tax file numbers, salary information, contract details, superannuation information, emergency contacts and any salary packaging arrangements.
(d) There has been no reported privacy breaches.
(i) N/A
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) advises that payroll is managed in-house.
(a) Ascender. The team that supports our needs is based in Bentley, Western Australia.
(b) $13k annually for 20 staff.
(c) All relevant employee details including:
Name
Address
DOB
FBT reportable annually
Place of birth
Superannuation provider
Other
(d) None. (i) not applicable.
The Department of Justice advises:
(a) Ascender Pay Pty Ltd, Australia.
The contract for Attorney General is an in-house payroll processing model where the Department updates and processes the payroll in-house, with Ascender providing software as a service (SaaS) database server hosting arrangements.
The Department of Justice currently has two Payroll and HR Management System contractual arrangements. The contract for Corrective Services is a largely outsourced model where Ascender updates the employee details, processes the payroll and provides software as a service (SaaS) database server hosting arrangements.
(b) $2,577,790 for Corrective Services. $535,954 for Attorney General.
(c) All required employee data is securely stored in the Ascender Human Resources Management System (HRMS) required to process the payroll and provide the Department of Justice with human resource reporting and analytics. This includes: names, addresses, bank account details, leave details, tax file numbers, salary information, contract details, superannuation information, emergency contacts and any salary packaging arrangements.
(d) There has been no reported privacy breaches.
(i) N/A
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) advises that payroll is managed in-house.
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