Ongoing IPPIS Verification Exercise: Matters Arising- By M.A Ahmed

The Federal Government commenced the implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in the year 2007 with a view to attaining transparency, accuracy, safety and reliability in the management of Personnel Records, while also curtailing avoidable excesses in personnel costs.

Driven by the Government’s quest to curb ghost workers syndrome and block leakages through personnel cost, the implementation of IPPIS commenced with the Payroll module rather than the Human Resource component.

Blocking of leakages in personnel cost cannot be genuinely achieved without verifying the personnel records of each and every worker. As such, in 2013, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), being the repository of official records and information on all Public Servants, was saddled with the responsibility of cleansing the record on the Payroll.

Leveraging on technology, the Office opened a verification portal in April, 2017 and directed all public servants to carry out online update of their records. 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 (1) year, May, 2018, to enable all officers update their records. This was the first phase.

Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitization visits by IPPIS staff to Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs), nationwide, the second phase of the exercise, the physical verification, commenced in 2018. In this regard, five hundred (500) staff from the OHCSF were trained and deployed, in well communicated and coordinated phases, to the thirty-six (36) states of the Federation and the FCT between 2018 and 2019 to enable officers carry out the physical verification in their states and save them from traveling to Abuja.

The OHCSF also conducted a two-week mop-up exercise in the six (6) 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 (7) years to verify the records all Civil Servants on the IPPIS platform, the 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, magnanimously reopened from October 3-13, 2023 for 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 unable to further deploy staff to the states for the exercise.

Adequate arrangements were put in place for a smooth exercise in designated areas of the FCT, however, the officers’ impatience and lack of orderliness in the first two days made the exercise rowdy. This has been duly addressed and the two-week exercise, scheduled to end on Friday, October 27, 2023, is progressing very well.

It should be noted that the aforementioned officers are the architects of their inconveniences for not being compliant with official directives. However, the verification of records of all Civil Servants will be finalized at the end of the ongoing exercise and any officer whose record could not be verified will be delisted from the payroll of government.

M. A. Ahmed,
Director, Communications, Office Of The Head Of Civil Service Of The Federation.
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