AN IT issue left Glasgow City Council unable to make payments to citizens and businesses.

The SAP operating system has been unavailable following an upgrade at the start of the year leaving people due money from the council not being paid.

The system covers the council’s payroll, HR and accounts payable.

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An internal message, seen by the Glasgow Times, stated: “Our SAP system remains unavailable for general use. It is used across the council to manage essential business processes including HR, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable.

“The issue arose after a planned upgrade of the SAP operating system and is affecting our ability to make payments to citizens, vendors and other stakeholders.

“Extensive work is ongoing to resolve the issue as a matter of urgency to make sure we continue to deliver vital services across the city.”

It is understood that the issue has affected the ability to make payments for the last two weeks.

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The note said: “At this time, we are unable to confirm when the system will be operational to allow payments to be made.

“Unfortunately the situation is outwith our control and we apologise for any frustration and inconvenience caused.”

It left the council unable to respond to any account enquiries while a solution was being worked on.

The council said some payments have been made while the issue is being resolved.

A council spokesperson said: “All of our staff have been paid.

“We had been experiencing technical issues with our software system following a planned upgrade at the beginning of the year and have been keeping staff and external suppliers informed of developments.

“Significant volumes of payments to suppliers have been made and we are continuing to do this until normal service is fully restored.

“We have apologised for any inconvenience caused.”

An SAP spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the issue arose after a planned upgrade of Glasgow City Council’s host operating system, which in turn meant that the SAP Software Applications were no longer able to run.

"As a valued SAP customer, we are working closely with Glasgow City Council and its support partner to provide comprehensive support and guidance during this time.”