NC State Government Totally Incompetent

It's apparently not bad enough that the state of North Carolina let its employee health plan go bankrupt. Now, according to the News and Observer, they are unable to handle payroll. Not that they can't meet payroll, they'll find the money, they can't figure out how to pay their employees for the time they've worked. From the paper's article:

A new state payroll system continues to frustrate employees, who don't know from month to month whether they will be paid for all the hours they worked.

Workers have been complaining about the payroll system called BEACON since spring, soon after all state agencies were required to start using it.

After news reports in mid-August about underpaid employees not being able to pay their bills, Gov. Mike Easley ordered that all employees who were owed money be paid by the end of August, when then-State Controller Robert Powell was to retire. Powell's office oversaw the payroll system's installation.

But some employees say they are still not getting paid for all the time they've worked. A message in the state Department of Health and Human Services' November newsletter from its human resources director, Kathy Gruer, thanked employees for their patience while "complex pay and system issues" were being resolved.

No private sector business would be allowed to mess their employees paychecks up for months on end. The total incompetence of our state government is mind-boggling, yet thousands of state employees trust them with their retirement and health care. Most all of us trust them to educate our children. They plan our infrastructure, inspect our bridges, enforce our laws and help themselves to our hard-earned money.

But they can't figure out how to write a paycheck.