DURING the years before and immediately following the end of the cold war, we often used to smile in a superior way about stories concerning the poor equipment and unreliable pay of Soviet bloc forces (Soldiers are cheated in pay blunder, News, last week).

How quickly this uncaring government and its reliance on the proven inadequacies of EDS [the company responsible for the Child Support Agency’s computers] has reduced our once proud forces to the same state.

John Prince Col (Retd)
Merles, France

RHETORIC AND REALITY: I left the army after six years in June 2007 and poor administration was the single biggest frustration for all ranks. Many officers talked a good game of looking after the lads but all too often the rhetoric did not match the reality.

Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) has simply exacerbated an existing problem. It is taking on an already complex pay and claims system and is being introduced with insufficient funding. However, a similar system is working well in the Australian military.

E Howell via e-mail

ADMIN FAILURES: Let us not forget that the army has had the benefit of “lessons learnt” from similarly disastrous introductions of the same system for the navy and air force. Goodness knows that the extent of the impact of JPA on those two services was - and it would be interesting to discover what was taken on board.

The system is insecure, too, it enables personnel to be paid twice. Aftercare is incredibly problematic and inadequate. Despite efforts to address the helpdesk support system, it continues to provide a less than satisfactory service. Some problems can take months to rectify and iSupport requests are often closed arbitrarily without satisfactory resolution.

Quite frankly, from an admin perspective, it has failed and continues to fail our service personnel.

Thierry Anderson
Dartford, Kent

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