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| Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed |
Mr Olufehinti Olusegun, the Director, Integrated Personnel Payroll
Information System has said the Federal Government saved over N206 billion in
salaries of federal civil servants during the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years.
Olusegun, who made the disclosure in an interview with the
News Agency
of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday, said this was achieved through blocking
financial leakages of ghost workers.
He gave the breakdown was N76 billion in 2017 and N130 billion in 2018,
adding that the current administration of President Mohammadu Buhari had helped
sustain the policy introduced in 2007.
He said the administration, through the offices of
Accountant-General of the Federation and the Minister of Finance, ensured that
all the 512 Ministries, Departments and Agencies and their 740,000 workforce,
had been properly streamlined into the IPPIS.
He said from 2015 till date, the Federal Government, as part of the gains of
the IPPIS, had been able to employ more than 70,000 new workers into the
federal civil service.
He revealed that the Federal Government also had given the deadline of March
for all MDAs to join the IPPIS or have their salaries stopped.
“What we have been able to achieve in IPPIS from 2015 till date is due to
the political will of the current administration, most especially from the
president himself.
“He has been able to bring in the Nigeria Police, the NSCDC, the immigration
and the prisons into IPPIS, unlike what it used to be; in fact, we just
finished capturing the military.
“The kind of support we have enjoyed from the Office of Accountant-General
of the Federation, former minister and current minister of finance, has been so
tremendous,” he said.
He, however, identified lack of infrastructure and inaccurate information
being supplied by civil servants as parts of challenges facing the policy.
“It has not been without challenges; we have challenges with infrastructure
and in terms of capturing, people do not seem to be bothered about the
information that is supplied.
“Where your bank account number is not complete or correct, there will be a
problem because you will not get your money. Where your date of birth is not
correct there will be a challenge too,’’ he said.
The director said there were ongoing moves to form synergy with state
governments towards domesticating IPPIS in their domain for effective
accountability and elimination of ghost workers.
He also urged those MDAs yet to join the IPPIS to do so in time so as to
help government achieve its dream of sanity in the salary payment policy.
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