By Uche Amunike
The Federal Government has announced that they would stop the salaries of every public worker whose has failed to update their records through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) verification.
Speaking through a statement signed by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan and released to newsmen, by her Director of Communications, Mohammed Ahmed, Wednesday, this disclosure was made.
The statement explained that a two week verification that will end on Friday, October 27, 2023, was already put in place, as a way of the government being magnanimous to workers who did not have the opportunity to participate in the earlier IPPIS verifications.
It also explained that there were enough arrangements on ground to ensure that there is a smooth exercise in all the necessary areas of the Federal Capital Territory. It explained that it was not orderly in the first two days, basically, because of the impatience of workers, thereby making it rowdy. However, that challenge had been addressed and the verification exercise was going on seamlessly.
It read: ‘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.’
‘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.’
The statement also recalled that in 2013, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, was officially bound by duty to take up the responsibility of cleansing the record on the payroll of workers, because it remained the repository of official records and information on every public servant.
Thanks to technology, the office opened an IPPIS verification portal in April 2017 and announced that every public servant should carry out online updates of their record. It then carried out aggressive sensitization and publicity, through official, conventional and social media. The statement explained that at first, three months was given for compliance, then further extended to one year, May 2018, so that all officers would be able to update their records.
It continued: ‘Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitization 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 between 2018 and 2019 to enable officers to carry out the physical verification in their states and save them to from traveling to Abuja.’
The statement concluded that after some erring workers pleaded to be given the last opportunity to comply with the IPPIS verification, their plea was granted and the portal, now reopened from October 3-13, 2023 so as to let them update their records and round up their IPPIS verifications. As from Friday, October 27, 2023, however, action would be taken against defaulters.
