School principals have been celebrating news the government is taking over the school payroll from Australian firm Talent2.
The school payroll is the biggest in New Zealand, paying about 90,000 people every fortnight. However, it has been beset by problems since its introduction in August 2012.
The error rate vastly improved after months of work, from 628 schools being affected at the start of 2013's first pay period to 32 in the most recent pay period.
However, Steven Joyce, the minister responsible for the beleaguered system, on Wednesday announced a government-owned company would take its running Novopay and that the Government had reached a cash settlement with the Australian-based company Talent2.
Talent2 will licence the payroll software to that company. It will also pay a settlement package worth between $18 million and $22 million to the Government. This includes $7 million cash, the transfer of assets including the software, and discounted fees for the ongoing support and maintenance of the software.