FG Saves N185billion From New Payroll System

The Bureau of Public Service Reforms has said that the Federal Government has saved over N185 billion from the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System,IPPIS.

The Director-General of the IPPIS, Joe Abah, who revealed this, said remarkable reforms had taken place in the civil service, including the removal of 65,000 ghost workers from IPPIS.

Abah spoke earlier in the week while presenting the “Status Report of Reforms” at a five-day Specialised Reforms/SERVICOM Training Programme in Abuja.

He said:“We started off with a completely inaccurate and unreliable payroll system. Since we put IPPIS in place in 2007, government has saved in the region of N185 billion and weeded out 65,000 ghost workers.”

He said the Work Efficiently Unit saw the identification of another 23,000 who were collecting multiple salaries.

“IPPIS has been a great success, but it has some challenges and it has some weakness. One of the weaknesses is that as soon as the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) put in place IPPIS after piloting it for a couple of years, it was basically taken over by accountants and they started with payroll instead of with the Head of Civil Service Commission (HCSC).”

Abah said it was possible to get on the payroll without being known by the Federal Civil Service Commission and that was why the Bureau still had issues with IPPIS. He, however, said the Bureau was working on that. “We are hoping that complete HCSC switch will come on board in July,’’ he said.

He added that the Bureau was also working with the Efficient Unit to ensure that the salaries were linked with the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).