By John Omachonu
Nigerians are pissed off with the federal government’s celebrated Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
From the street, the argument is why is IPPIS, a major contentious issue in the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and its still been retained by the federal government without efforts to possible calibration with others so as to end the strike?
Also, why the alleged misaplication and misappropriation on the increase even with IPPIS?
Why federal government seems to be irrevocably committed to IPPIS even when same government agency says it had failed integrity test?
Why and how does it seem that permanent secretaries are now ‘mobile’, seen and heard louder with ‘centralization’ of resources, using the instrumentality of IPPIS since future has become ‘uncertain’?
It is not because the Information Technology enabled system which the federal government of Nigeria in October 2006 introduced as one of its reform programmes to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in the storage of personnel records and administration of monthly payroll in such a way to enhance confidence in staff is not good or desirable, but because the street consensus is that it is being abused and manipulated by the civil servants for their pecuniary interests.
In fact, some of the objectives of IPPIS amongst others are to ensure centralised payment of salaries, ease convenient staff remuneration payment with minimal wastage, facilitate easjy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel record for administrative and pension processing, aid manpower planning and budgeting, among others.
IPPIS secretariat is a department under the office of the Accountant General of the Federation responsible for payment of salaries and wages directly to thousands of federal civil servants in the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
Although the platform was introduced to curb corruption such as payment of salaries to ghost workers and padding of budgets, there are still cases of alleged corruption involving billions of Naira even from the offi e where it is domiciled.
The general concensus from the street is tha apart from using the system to fleece poor Nigerians, the agony and trauma of students in public universities and their parents for the past over seven months is as a result of funds related issues with the IPPIS at the centre.
While government says and understandably too, that the nation’s income streams have reduced with the attendant dwindling revenue, ASUU on the other hand is accusing government officials of misapplication and misappropriation, using the instrumentality of IPPIS and as such have opted for UTAS developed by the lecturers.
ASUU has said that IP, since it’s introduction had contributed to about 75 percent of the problems affecting Nigeria’s University system.
More worrisome is the fact that both the IPPIS, UTAS, U3PS were confirmed to have failed Integrity Test For University Payroll
However, the revelations during the House of Representatives’ troubleshooting steps last week Thursday were shocking as well as embarrassing.
The leadership of the House met with the Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, among other government officials.
The meeting by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker and other principal officers was sequel to an earlier one held with ASUU officials on Tuesday where issues related to the strike were discussed.
In fact, the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting ocassioned the meeting which also included, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Accountant General of the Federation, among others.
“At Thursday’s meeting, NITDA told the House leadership that IPPIS, the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) failed its integrity tests regarding the university payroll, which the agency conducted between March and June this year,” the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Speaker, Lanre Lasisi, said in a statement.
“According to an NITDA official at the meeting, the government directed the agency to test UTAS in October 2020, adding that the platform failed the two integrity tests conducted on it.
“He said following the first test, ASUU was asked to go back and review, which it did. Yet, the platform did not meet NITDA’s requirements the second time.
“For the third time, NITDA was then asked to conduct tests on UTAS, IPPIS, and U3PS, which the official said all three platforms failed its requirements regarding the payroll system of universities.”
Lasisi added that “Not satisfied with the explanation, Speaker Gbajabiamila asked if NITDA advised the government to take action on the lapses found on IPPIS, which has been in operation by the government since 2011. But the NITDA official said they were not in a position to do that.
“Gbajabiamila also asked if NITDA queried the IPPIS platform, to which the official responded in the negative.
“But the Head of Service, in her explanation, said the ministry of communications and digital economy wrote her office following NITDA’s observations about IPPIS on the need to take a holistic look at the platform and that a committee was empaneled to carry out the assignment.
“She also noted that IPPIS is not just a payment platform but that it also has a human resource component, which all government agencies have been directed to activate, noting that all those directly under her purview have since complied.
But, further interactions showed that, rather than encouraging staff to embark on the training and to as well under study the technical partners, it has been, rather, looking for possible loopholes to exploit them to their advantage.
This is because greater percentage of federal civil servants, particularly, from deputy directors and above are not computer savvy as major aspects of their daily and routine tasks are done manually.
Also speaking at the meeting, the acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh, said under no circumstance should employees dictate to their employers how they should be paid, faulting ASUU’s insistence on UTAS.
But Nigerians have berated the Accountant General for his outburst over a legitimate demand by ASUU, when billions are allegedly siphoned even from the same office with the discredited IPPIS.
After hours of deliberations, the Speaker suggested that a further follow-up meeting with ASUU officials be held on Thursday, (today).
After hours of deliberations, the Speaker suggested that a further follow-up meeting with ASUU officials be held on Thursday, (today).
So Nigerians are waiting with bated breath the possibility of more revelations and manipulations of IPPIS by the Civil servants.
Also, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation(OHCSF) said last week that it has detected a total of 1,618 workers whose letters of employment were either fake or illegal in the Federal Civil Service, thereby defeating the purpose of IPPIS.
Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, revealed on Tuesday in Abuja during an oversight visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Service Matters,who came for monitoring of the 2021 and 2022 Budget performance of the office.
Yemi-Esan disclosed that this ugly development led to the suspension of 874 officers from the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) platforms for not updating their records and 3,657 workers detected by the Federal Civil Service Commission, who did not present themselves for the exercise.
In her Presentation,Yemi-Esan, said the introduction and implementation of the Human Resource component (HR Module) of IPPIS has greatly assisted the Federal Government in bridging the gap created by the implementation of the IPPIS project.
Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, revealed on Tuesday in Abuja during an oversight visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Service Matters,who came for monitoring of the 2021 and 2022 Budget performance of the office.
Yemi-Esan disclosed that this ugly development led to the suspension of 874 officers from the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) platforms for not updating their records and 3,657 workers detected by the Federal Civil Service Commission, who did not present themselves for the exercise.
In her Presentation,Yemi-Esan, said the introduction and implementation of the Human Resource component (HR Module) of IPPIS has greatly assisted the Federal Government in bridging the gap created by the implementation of the IPPIS project.
This is in spite of the alleged employment racketeering at the federal civil service as well as MDAs.
Speaking during the Lagos chapter of NLC last week where its leadership gave the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to resolve the ASUU impasse, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) called for accountability from those who have looted the public fund through the payment platform, IPPIS.
He said that IPPIS is a fraudulent tool through which public funds are being siphoned, just as he demanded the eradication of spending of American dollars in Nigeria.
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He noted that with the instrumentality of IPPIS, the former accountant- general was able to steal billions of naira, saying the money that one man stole can take care of the needs of ASUU.
It was gathered on good authorities that periodic audit reports by the country’s Auditor General revealed that as at November 2020, more than 14 years after the rollout of IPPIS, a fraud of over N3. 96 billion was identified.
Recently too, Nigeria’s former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris was detained for an alleged N80 billion fraud that involved compromising the IPPIS.
So Nigerians arewondering why the federal government seems irrevocably committed to the IPPIS despite its failings that have brought mental and physical tortures on the citizens through systems decay and deprivation.
Some Nigerians are asking as to whether IPPIS may have succeeded in centralizing corruption as against centralization of staff related issues and functions for efficiency and consequently, improved productivity.