The Federal Government has given civil servants who have not verified their information on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, until Friday to do so or face removal from the payroll.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, made this known in a statement on Wednesday. The statement was issued by Mohammed Ahmed, the Director of Communications in her office.
The statement said that a two-week verification exercise was ongoing for officers who missed the previous ones. The exercise would end on Friday, October 27, 2023.
The statement also explained that the IPPIS was introduced in 2007 to ensure transparency, accuracy, security, and reliability in managing personnel records and reducing wasteful spending.
The statement said that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation was responsible for cleaning up the records on the payroll since 2013. The office used technology to open a verification portal in April, 2017 and asked all public servants to update their records online. The office also conducted extensive awareness and publicity campaigns through various media platforms. The online update lasted for one year, ending in May, 2018. This was the first phase of the verification.
The second phase was the physical verification, which started in 2018. The statement said that IPPIS staff from the OHCSF visited Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs) across the country to sensitise them. The OHCSF also trained and deployed 500 staff to the 36 states and the FCT in different stages between 2018 and 2019. This was to enable officers to verify their records in their states without travelling to Abuja.
The statement said that after investing a lot of money and manpower for seven years to verify all civil servants on the IPPIS system, the office decided to stop paying those who did not participate in the exercise from September 2023.
The statement said that some of the affected officers pleaded with the OHCSF to give them another chance to comply. The office agreed to reopen the portal from October 3-13, 2023 for them to update their records.
The statement said that the officers were then asked to come to Abuja for the physical verification exercise because the office had no more funds to send staff to the states for the exercise.
The statement said that the exercise was going smoothly in designated areas of the FCT after some initial challenges caused by the officers’ impatience and disorderliness in the first two days.
The statement warned that these officers had caused their own problems by not following official instructions.
The statement said that the verification of records of all civil servants would be completed at the end of the current exercise, and any officer whose record could not be verified would be removed from the government payroll.
