Uche Usim, Abuja
Twelve years after the Federal Government introduced the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita has described the initiative as most commendable having saved the country over N250 billion via ghost workers, among other benefits.
This is as the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Ahmed Idris revealed that 700,000 workers drawn from 515 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were currently on the IPPIS platform.
The two top civil servants made the disclosures on Tuesday in Abuja at the commencement of a two-day retreat organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation with stakeholders on IPPIS, with the theme: “The Role of Ministries Departments and Agencies on the implementation of IPPIS and Its Effect On The Workers Condition Of Service And Government Revenue”.
According to the Head of Service, IPPIS was introduced by the Federal Government in 2007 with a view towards attaining transparency, accuracy and curtailing avoidable excesses in personnel costs.
She said: “IPPIS is an oracle software that consists of five modules; the HR module being the central and other modules include learning management, payroll, business intelligence and self-service.
“It is worthy to mention that the learning management component is on course with the recent presentation of the TNA to the public, very soon training of 25,000 civil servants would commence.
“The Performance Management System (PMS) which would rely on the HR Module is also ongoing. In this regard the PMS policy and guidelines has been presented to stakeholders for their comments before final adoption.
“The activities towards the implementation of the HR module have commenced fully first with the online records update. This was followed by the verification exercise of all public servants, starting with core civil servants with the view of cleansing and migrating the data of all public servants on the IPPIS portal. The verification exercise has been completed in Lagos and Abuja. Indeed the OHCSF being the pilot is now live on the IPPIS portal with employees being able to carry out the self-service component of IPPIS”, she explained.
Oyo-Ita commended the present Accountant-General for being the first to be so determined to implement IPPIS.
“It is important to also mention the effort my office is making towards improving salaries of workers which can only be justified based on savings and blockage of all wastages. You can now apply for leave online and print out your payslips online”, she added.
Also speaking at the event, the AGF, Ahmed Idris disclosed that 39 police commands, three formations, four para-military agencies, retired heads of service and permanent secretaries were on IPPIS.
He further revealed that the trial payroll for the military and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is scheduled to commence in May.
Idris said the government recorded a savings of N130 billion in 2018, while N67 billion was saved in 2017.
The AGF listed challenges facing IPPIS to include; change management issues, institutional resistance, conflicting of roles, delay in enrollment processes, among others.
Earlier in his keynote address, the representative of the Finance Minister, Prof Armstrong Umeh said IPPIS has become an institution of government that should be sustained.
He thanked the Head of Service for insisting that the human resource component of the initiative takes the lead.
While congratulating the AGF for the momentum towards ensuring various MDAs came onboard, he said the overall aim is to have all MDAs key into the platform to avoid operating in silos and in discriminatory ways.
“Multiple studies have shown that since IPPIS inception, many wastages have been cut, there is better transparency and accountability.
“Now, we can forecast manpower growth, etc. Until IPPIS is implemented to extent of making the insertion ghost workers impossible, then the aims remain unattained” he said.
He revealed that 515 MDAs were currently on the IPPIS platform, pointing out that those caught attempting to insert ghost workers have either been jailed or being prosecuted.
“With the elimination of file based manual system, IPPIS enables the FG to know its workforce size, eliminate corruption, over estimation of budgets, falsification of age, LGAs, etc. Budgets are estimated because the actual size of workforce is not known.
“IPPIS will reduce spending on recurrent expenditures and release money for capital projects. There is need for all MDAs to come onboard”, he added.