The Federal Government has issued a warning that officers whose records cannot be verified on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will face delisting from the payroll, effective this Friday.
Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), delivered this message in a statement on Wednesday. According to the statement signed by Mohammed Ahmed, Director of Communications in her office, this two-week exercise, set to conclude on Friday, October 27, 2023, has been extended as a gesture of goodwill for officers who missed previous verifications.
The Federal Government initiated the IPPIS in 2007 with the goal of achieving transparency, accuracy, safety, and reliability in managing personnel records while controlling unnecessary personnel costs.
“In 2013, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), as the keeper of official records and information on all public servants, was tasked with cleansing the payroll records,” Mohammed said.
The OHCSF introduced a verification portal in April 2017, encouraging all public servants to update their records online. A comprehensive awareness campaign was conducted through official, traditional, and social media. An initial three-month compliance period was later extended to one year in May 2018 to accommodate all officers, marking the first phase.
The second phase involved physical verification, with IPPIS staff visiting Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) across the nation. “In this regard, 500 OHCSF staff were trained and deployed to the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT between 2018 and 2019, ensuring that officers could verify their records in their respective states,” Mohammed said.
After seven years of financial and human resource investment to verify records of all civil servants on the IPPIS platform, the OHCSF reluctantly suspended the salaries of those who failed to participate in the exercise starting in September 2023.
“In response, some non-compliant officers urgently requested a final opportunity to comply,” Mohammed said. “The portal was graciously reopened from October 3-13, 2023, for them to update their records.”
These officers were then required to come to Abuja for the physical verification, as the OHCSF had exhausted budgeted funds and couldn’t deploy more staff to the states. Adequate arrangements were made in designated areas of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Despite initial challenges due to impatience and disorderliness, the two-week exercise, ending on October 27, 2023, is now proceeding smoothly.
Also, Mohammed stated that non-compliant officers are responsible for their inconveniences due to their failure to adhere to official directives. He said, “The verification of records of all civil servants will be finalised at the end of the ongoing exercise, and any officer whose record cannot be verified will be removed from the government payroll.”
