CAPTION: The launch of the Phoenix pay system and data collection by Indigenous Services Canada are being criticized in the auditor general’s latest report.

Michael Ferguson urged Ottawa to reflect on what he called “incomprehensible failures.” (May 29, 2018) 1.

SOUNDBITE: Bill Morneau, finance minister PLACELINE: Ottawa CREDIT: The Canadian Press STORYLINE: The federal government's problem-plagued Phoenix pay system was mismanaged from the very beginning, says a new report that lays blame for the bungled project squarely at the feet of bureaucrats.

The findings were contained in the auditor general's latest report to Parliament, which also found flaws in Canada's military justice system; how government surplus assets are disposed of; and how Ottawa has failed to close socio-economic gaps between on-reserve First Nations people and other Canadians. ``The building and implementation of Phoenix was an incomprehensible failure of project management and oversight,'' auditor general Michael Ferguson said in his second report on the pay system in six months.

The pay system was never properly tested before its initial launch in February 2016, and Phoenix executives either didn't understand or ignored warnings of problems, choosing to place potential savings targets ahead of system readiness, said Ferguson's spring report.