In a recent development, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has issued a warning that federal workers whose names are missing from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will no longer receive salaries starting from the end of this month.
The announcement comes as no fewer than 89,100 employees have failed to update their records, despite the OHCSF’s directive issued earlier this month.
While a substantial number of 780,000 workers have successfully complied with the registration requirements, the failure of a significant fraction to do so has raised concerns within the government.
The ongoing program, which was initiated in April 2017, was intended to streamline payroll management, tackle the pervasive issue of ghost workers, and close loopholes leading to excessive personnel costs.
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M. A. Ahmed, the Director of Communications at the OHCSF, emphasized that the deadline for registration on the IPPIS platform is fast approaching, and the government is compelled to take strict measures to ensure compliance.
With the conclusion of the registration program on Friday, October 27 (tomorrow), the OHCSF has announced that all names not found on the IPPIS will be removed from the federal payroll. This move is part of the government’s efforts to enhance transparency and accountability within the country’s civil service.
Ahmed said:
“The office carried out aggressive sensitization and publicity via the official, conventional and social media. An initial period of three (3) months was given for compliance, which was extended to one year, May 2018, to enable all officers to update their records. This was the first phase.
“Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitisation visits by IPPIS staff to ministries, extra-ministerial departments and agencies nationwide, the second phase of the exercise, the physical verification, commenced in 2018.
“In this regard, 500 staff from the OHCSF were trained and deployed, in well-communicated and coordinated phases, to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT(Federal Capital Territory) between 2018 and 2019 to enable officers to carry out the physical verification in their states and save them from travelling to Abuja.
“The OHCSF also conducted a two-week mop-up exercise in the six geo-political zones, which ended on August 1, 2019 to further enable those who missed the first exercise to be effectively captured.
“Teams of officials were also assigned to all unity colleges, in order not to disrupt academic activities. Another opportunity was provided between September 2022 and February 2023 for those who failed to verify their records in the previous exercises to do so.
“Having committed substantial financial and human resources over a period of seven years to verify the records of all civil servants on the IPPIS platform, our office was left with no option than to suspend the salaries of those who failed to participate in the exercise with effect from September 2023.
“Consequent upon this, some of the erring officers besieged the OHCSF with pleas to be given the last opportunity to comply. The portal was, therefore, reopened on October 3 to 13, 2023 to enable them to update their records.
“The officers were then asked to come to Abuja for the physical verification exercise as the office had already committed and exhausted the budgeted funds and was unable to further deploy staff to the states for the exercise.”
The spokesperson for the OHCSF also responded to assertions made by certain employees regarding challenges faced during the verification process in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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He clarified that although there were instances of disorderliness among officers in the initial two days of the operation, the OHCSF extended a two-week grace period, which is set to conclude tomorrow.
Ahmed said:
“It should be noted that the aforementioned officers are the architects of their inconvenience for not being compliant with official directives.
“However, the verification of records of all civil servants will be finalised at the end of the ongoing exercise and any officer whose record could not be verified will be delisted from the payroll of government.”
