Why the surprise?  This is business as usual in the federal public service.  Read the last five or more Auditor General's reports and the number of instances of massive failure in the federal government's IT projects will be mind-numbing, from its new email system to Shared Services Canada.  Go back even further and there was the infamous $1 billion fiasco which was the long-gun registry.  In comparison, the wasted money on the Phoenix payroll system is mere peanuts in comparison.  What keeps the Phoenix system in the spotlight is that it is the federal public servants themselves who are getting screwed by the system, and many of them are ready to speak publicly about the problem which they have never done before about any of the other IT fiascos in the federal government.