On June 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 108, a budget trailer bill, allocating $10.4 million to the State Controller’s Office to contract with an SI. However, SCO won’t get the money until CSPS completes Stage 4 of the Project Approval Lifecycle process. It’s currently in Stage 3.
The SCO is already out to bid for the SI contract, according to a May Budget Change Proposal from the office. An office spokesperson told Industry Insider — California that it aims to award the contract in April.
The $10.4 million SI funding is a re-appropriation from last year’s CSPS budget.
To support the SI, SCO also hopes to release three solicitations by September for business analysis, IT services and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services.
The project will modernize the Uniform State Payroll System, the statewide system developed in the 1970s. California has been trying to replace that system since the 1990s, but abandoned two previous efforts before beginning CSPS in 2016.
Since the system is in place across the state, the project is massive and complex. Goals for the new system include:
- Moving state employees from monthly to biweekly pay
- Improving end-user functionality, including employee and manager access to update bank information, tax withholdings and more
- Better online view capabilities for payroll, employment history, leave balances and tax information
- Enhanced reporting, including user-friendly ad hoc reporting tools
- Automated point of entry and compliance checks
