The IPPIS is a unit in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation that is used as a channel to document, compute, and collate details of all in the employ of the federal civil service for payment of salaries and allowances and other entitlements of the public servants.
I came across a report in several major dailies titled “Police tops list as ICPC exposes over 22,000 suspicious.”
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission identified 22,074 suspicious personnel on the Federal Government’s payroll in the report.
This is despite the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The commission found that the government disbursed N37,103,337,614.40 last year to these suspicious employees.
My major concern is that of the Nigeria Police. I have witnessed many meetings and events on the Nigeria Police and managing the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
I was shocked to read the report that said, “The analysis of NPF payroll focused on December 2023 nominal and payroll obtained from IPPIS for comparison. The nominal and payroll have populated names of 350,028 and 312,047, respectively.”.
The IPPIS is a unit in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation that is used as a channel to document, compute, and collate details of all in the employ of the federal civil service for payment of salaries and allowances and other entitlements of the public servants.
In my strong opinion, I have to blame the IPPIS because the existing structure for computing and payment of salaries and allowances of all federal agencies rests squarely on the shoulders of the IPPIS and, therefore, is beyond the influence of the Nigeria Police operation.
The IPPIS is the sole agency responsible for computing the salaries and allowances of all public servants in the country, so it is neither the responsibility of the police authorities to compute nor pay the personnel of the Force.
Since its inception, the IPPIS system has received several knocks as workers generally complain of non-payment of allowances and arrears; non-remittance of loans to banks and cooperative organisations; unexplained deductions; non-remittance of union check-off dues; and non-issuance of pay cheques.
Under the IPPIS, newly-employed workers spend several months without salaries, while many have complained of disparity in salary payment among officers on the same grade level.
In recent times, muted complaints against officials of the IPPIS have become rampant as key government agencies have pointed fingers at the IPPIS.
According to them, the agency has in recent times been alleged to have been compromised, leading to the prevalence of ghost workers as well as the deliberate short-change of many MDAs in the disbursement of salaries and allowances to staff.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is among the many organisations that have disparaged the IPPIS, accusing it of using structures in the payment of salaries and allowances of public servants.
“We have not changed our position on the IPPIS. It lacks the flexibility to be deployed in the university system. Look at how they mutilating salaries of workers and coming up with cock and bull stories of tax deductions and others, the union had said and has still maintained its stance till date,” it had stated.
Similarly, workers of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had kicked against the alleged unholy practices of the IPPIS, saying that rather than helping out, it tends to aggravate the problems it was designed to solve.
The Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, is an accountable and transparent officer, and I remember vividly his statement on 21st June 2023 that says, “The Nigeria Police Force will strive for excellence, transparency, and accountability. We will also include a technology-driven approach to leveraging other techniques to ensure effective and efficient use of resources.”
Till today, IGP Egbetokun has not departed from his strive for excellence, transparency, and accountability aside from the provision of adequate security for Nigerians, with the assistance of other security agencies.
Adewole Kehinde is the publisher of Swift Reporters. 08166240846. [email protected]