The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, on September 10, 2019 informed all federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who have not yet enrolled their staff on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to do so without further delay.
She said that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that staff of federal MDAs not captured on the automated payroll system will not be paid their salaries at the end of this month, that is, October 2019, and all subsequent months, until they are enrolled.
The Minister announced the deadline during the public presentation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) in Abuja in relation to the 2020 budget.
The Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister said that the step was necessary to block leakages and reduce recurrent personnel expenditure, including pension.
It may be recalled that the IPPIS project took off in April 2007 with the main aims of paying staff accurately and on time within statutory and contractual regulations. It is also designed to provide a payroll service that is customer focused.
Other aims of IPPIS include detecting and removal of ghost workers from the Federal Payroll. The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation where IPPIS is domiciled, has indeed detected and eliminated thousands of ghost workers from the Federal pay roll.
An entry on the website of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation says that right from the inception of the IPPIS project in April 2007, the department has saved the Federal Government of Nigeria billions of Naira by eliminating thousands of ghost workers.
Indeed, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris, has disclosed that the Federal Government was saved N274 billion through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (PPIS) platform.
The Accountant-General of the Federation said the N274 billion was the cumulative savings achieved on IPPIS Platform between 2017 and 2018, that is, within just two years.
That huge amount of money would have been paid as salaries and allowances to ghost workers and represents one of the leakages on which corruption thrives.
The President alluded to the impact made by IPPIS alongside other anti-corruption initiatives in his 59th Independence Anniversary address to the nation on October 1, 2019 thus: “On fighting corruption, our institutional reforms to enforce the Treasury Single Account policy, introduce the Whistle-blowers’ Initiative, expand the coverage of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System as well as the Government Integrated Management Information System have saved billions of Naira over the last four years, and deterred the rampant theft and mismanagement of public funds that have plagued our public service.”
Given the benefits brought to the country by IPPIS as testified by President Muhammadu Buhari, it is obvious that the deadline he set as conveyed to the MDAs that have not enrolled their staff on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, is strongly justified.
The concerned MDAs should comply by immediately enrolling their staff on the IPPIS platform. Doing so will shield their staff from the unpleasant consequences of delayed salaries. And more important for all Nigerians, it will save the country more billions of Naira by blocking illegal payments to ghost workers.
