In any computing program/application you use on your PC, Mac, Pad or smart phone, what you are looking at on screen is called the front end. Behind that lies the engine made up of ones and zeros. As a typical HR system is a set of interlinked records and histories, they are mostly built on an existing database module and then customized for individual use and differentiation from competitors.

So you might describe the average HR system, for example, as follows. “Workforce Ready by Kronos is a human resources (HR) platform that combines workforce management with human capital management (HCM) capabilities and is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Kronos Workforce Ready is a single cloud-based solution that incorporates recruiting, onboarding, performance management, compensation planning, time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, payroll and more.

Workforce Ready features a single employee record shared across all its applications. All employee data is maintained in a single database, with a single user interface to pull reports and launch workflows across the organization. Data is updated in real time, so managers can make decisions based on the latest, most accurate information. A mobile application is also available.”

There is nothing too complicated in any of that. The supplier of the program/s sets it up for the customer as a blank set of records and it is up to the HR department of that customer to learn to use the software and then go live with it by entering the information daily. There may be hiccups in the first couple of weeks but then it should run smoothly and without hitches, (saving the electricity goes off). Most such HR packages come with a maintenance contract that includes a number to call if there is a problem.

In purely software terms then, it’s a no-brainer. There isn’t any complex multi-media stuff like video, animation, graphics, sound or music to consider, all huge files by nature. Instead, there is a boring text based database to update and query. How then can the, “The National College of Art and Design (NCAD),” have to abandon a HR software system on which it spent €138,000 over three years? Apparently, it was because management failed to properly implement it. “NCAD management did not manage the project competently and consequently management never fully implemented the project,” a statement on internal financial controls states.

In private enterprise, that management would be fired, full stop. They’d be out of a job with little in the line of a decent reference and looking for the dole. There is no way in hell that such incompetence could have any other result. But the NCAD is not private enterprise. The inner-city Dublin college in question, which has around 1,000 full-time and 600 evening students, received €6.6m of its €18m income in 2016 from State grants, as well as around €5m in tuition fees paid from public funds. So €11.6m out of a total €18m comes from the taxpayer and presumably the rest comes from the students.

And that really is the end of the story folks. Nobody from management will lose their job, nobody will be busted down a couple of grades, nobody will get a final warning and in fact, it is more likely that normal promotions will continue as if €138k of public money has not needlessly been pissed down the toilet because lazy fuckers couldn’t be bothered doing their permanent and pensionable jobs.

There are thousands of such examples each year in this country where waste and stupidity run in parallel to homelessness and poverty and n’ere the twain shall meet. The poor will be punished and the lazy incompetents promoted.