FG suspends civil servants in MDAs, RMAFC, OAGF over alleged salary padding
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
The Federal Government has suspended many civil servants across several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) over their alleged involvement in salary padding on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
This development was made known by RMAFC chairman, Mohammed Bello Shehu, on Monday, June 12.
Shehu said that those identified had been placed on suspension pending the conclusion of the investigation.
He added that the affected civil servants manipulated the IPPIS system to pad their salaries above their threshold.
While confirming the development, a source said that an Assistant director at the OAGF in charge of staff’s salary allegedly connived with some employees to pad up the salaries of unspecified number of lower level staff.
He disclosed that the scheme was discovered when a Level 07 officer whose salary should be in the range of N60,000 was paid over N400,000, which was in the range of salary package of a director.
The source added that the salary padding racket had been on for a while among a small clique of civil servants in different MDAs with the IPPIS office in the OAGF as the epicentre.
The OAGF, while reacting to the development in a statement, said that,
“We are in receipt of enquiries over alleged ‘salary padding’ on the IPPIS involving some unspecified MDAs.”
“In the meantime, a staff suspected to be connected with the breach has been suspended to allow for thorough investigation.
“All necessary steps are being taken to strengthen the controls around the IPPIS payment platform and an independent forensic audit of the entire payroll system is underway to ascertain if the reported breach is isolated or widespread.
“If the indicted officials were found culpable of the salary padding allegations, they would be handed over to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.”