Salaries of 243 federal workers suspended after shunning verification
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Workers in federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) who failed to participate in the nationwide verification exercise have had their salaries suspended to plug leaks though which officials pad payroll with fake names to steal funds.
A circular from the office of the Head of Federal Civil Service listed the MDAs with ghost workers whose salaries have been suspended to include:
- Ministry of Information and Culture
- Ministry of Labour and Employment
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Works and Housing
- Ministry of Youths and Sports Development.
- Office of the federal Auditor General
- Office of the federal Accountant General
- Some Federal Government Colleges
The circular identified 91 fake workers in the Labour and Employment Ministry headed by Chris Ngige and 48 in the Information and Culture Ministry headed by Lai Mohammed, among others.
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Implementation of IPPIS to check fraud
The circular, published by The PUNCH, was signed by Career Management Office Permanent Secretary (OHCSF) Marcus Ogunbiyi.
“In an effort to roll out the human resource module of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System [IPPIS], the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation issued various circulars calling on public servants to update their records online on the IPPIS verification platform,” the circular began.
“The office carried out sensitisation and publicity in both the print and audio media to further draw the attention of public servants to this very important exercise.
“The exercise was meant to facilitate the identification of ‘ghost’ workers in order to curtail avoidable financial excesses in personnel costs, while also ensuring credible staff records.
“Consequently, the verification portal was opened for all public servants from April 2017 to May 2018 to enable them carry out the online records’ updates. Another opportunity was given from November 2019 to March 2020.
“However, despite all the publicity and circulars to Ministries, Department and Agencies, some employees in the core MDAs did not comply with this directive and were suspected as ‘ghost’ workers.
“The salaries of 243 officers in the attached list have been suspended from the IPPIS platform immediately.
“Officers in the list are, therefore, advised to appear in person at the office of the Permanent Secretary, CMO of the OHCSF before April 15, 2022 with all relevant documents and credentials to prove that they were duly employed by the Federal Civil Service Commission.”