CalPERS just put another few million bucks into a new half-billion-dollar computer hardware and software system that launched late, went way over budget – and still isn't quite right.

At the same Wednesday meeting where they approved that expense, the fund's Board of Administration heard the new program is still creating extra work for harried staff and delaying services to its 1.6 million members.

Coming in at $514 million – the board OK'd spending another $6.8 million on it – my|CalPERS promises to streamline what 49 old systems did. Eventually.

The program rolled out in mid-September, nearly two years late and at double its estimated cost. Since then, programmers have made some 2,000 fixes and plan another 1,000 in a January systemwide update.

This column, CalPERS officials and board members have fielded calls and emails about how the new system has delayed benefit checks and wrongly triggered health insurance cancellation letters to grieving widows.

CalPERS has been working to fix those problems and others, according to customer service executive Donna Lum. "We're beginning to turn the corner," she said Wednesday.

But problems remain, creating a bottleneck at CalPERS' call center, which has seen "higher than normal call volumes and wait times," Lum said.

That's on top of the heavy call traffic that always slams CalPERS in December, the biggest month for new retirements, and when January tax mailings loom.

Average hold times to CalPERS recently have ranged from 27 minutes to 54 minutes, with most days averaging somewhere in between, according to CalPERS data. The longest hold times happen before 11 a.m. The shortest: between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Worse, CalPERS' new automated voice answering system overstated hold times by a factor of two or three. Its estimates were snapshots based on data – call volumes, the number of employees working phone lines and the like – that usually change quickly for the better, said fund spokesman Robert Glazier.

CalPERS tweaked the phone system on Wednesday morning to give a range, Lum said, "So now it might say (the hold time is) between 25 and 35 minutes."

Officials also have adjusted a feature that should let more members hang up and receive a call back from CalPERS when a line opens.

And that $6.8 million? That's for staffing, hardware and software updates over the next six months.

CalPERS hasn't put judges into the system. Ditto for about 280 active and retired elected state officials, like Gov. Jerry Brown. (Legislators first elected after 1990 don't receive a pension.)

Board member J.J. Jelincic said those groups won't tolerate system snafus.

"We won't just be getting phone calls to the board," Jelincic said Wednesday. "We'll be getting invitations to legislative hearings."

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Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs. Go there to sign up for email alerts on important breaking news about state workers.

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