A leaked high-level document has exposed serious problems in a showpiece privatised set-up for paying Northern Ireland government employees.

The firmly-worded memo from a top civil servant referred to people being left “significantly underpaid” and needing “emergency payments”.

It also warned of declining staff confidence in the multi-million pound HRConnect programme.

HRConnect was officially launched last year and involves the transfer of civil service payroll and other personnel functions to a private sector consortium.

The internal document, obtained by the Belfast Telegraph, was written by the permanent secretary of the Department for Regional Development (DRD), Paul Priestly.

It was sent earlier this month to Stormont’s Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP).

DRD was left with no option but to make emergency payments to |staff significantly underpaid

HRConnect is a major plank of the DFP “reform agenda” for the public sector. It covers a range of human resources services.

Last week, the DFP announced the cancellation of another high-profile reform initiative, the Workplace 2010 scheme for privatising office provision.

In his memo on HRConnect, Mr Priestly said there had been a “lack of progress” in resolving problems.

“For example, at the start of this month DRD was left with no option but to make emergency payments to a number of staff who had been significantly underpaid in January and who, despite making numerous contacts with HRConnect, had not received any payment.”

He also said there was an “apparent lack of customer service” from the HRConnect centre.

“In some cases individuals have been placed in actual financial difficulty through errors in their pay, yet when they try to resolve their issues they are unable to get a meaningful response from HRConnect despite repeated attempts,” the memo stated.

Mr Priestly further said: "In summary, the continuing difficulties being experienced with payroll and customer service are leading many of my staff to question the skills and capacity of HR to deliver to an acceptable standard.

“There is a risk that this will bleed into a wider loss of confidence in HRConnect's ability to deliver other HR functions."

A spokeswoman for DFP last night said it did not comment on internal correspondence. The Department for Regional Development said it did not comment on leaked documents.

HRConnect is scheduled to cost the public purse more than £400m over a 15-year period.