FG to Decentralise IPPIS’ Operation

By Laleye Dipo

The federal government has said that the operations of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will be decentralised in the country.

In a message to the closing of a three-day Nationwide IPPIS Payroll Training for Role Players in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Wednesday, the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, said the decentralisation of the scheme will ensure better efficiency and delivery of service.

Represented by the Director IPPIS in the Accountant General’s Office, Dr Ben Nsikak, Idris added that the decentralisation will remove the problems of some stakeholders travelling to Abuja to solve one problem or the other.

“The decentralisation is to ensure people, role players and the MDAs are able to carry out updates and variations at the back end without necessarily coming to Abuja,” the Accountant General further explained.

He however warned that checks and balances have been introduced to ensure the decentralisation is not compromised.

He added that the internal auditors in the respective MDAs are expected to review the updates that have been done while accounting officers who have the responsibility over human materials and financial resources of the establishments are also expected to sign up and take responsibility for whatever update that has been done.

Idris disclosed that the IPPIS, which started in 2007 with the enrolment of only seven MDAs, has now enrolled 711 MDAs.

On the shortfall being recorded in the payment of workers’ salaries, Idris said the problem has been reduced drastically submitting that only few MDAs have shortfalls compared to what obtained last year.

He disclosed that the office of the Head of Service of the Federation has cleaned up the human resource module in the programme, while his office is already carrying out similar exercise for the salary payment module.

He described the training programme, which attracted over 400 participants, as imperative and part of the business reengineering process government has to do to drive the scheme to more success.

In an address, the Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, disclosed that the state will partner with the federal government on the implementation of IPPIS in the state.

Bello, whose address was read by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Ahmed Matane, said the adoption of IPPIS in the state will minimize the current corruption and its tendencies in the salary payment system in the state.

He decried the continuous increase in the salaries of workers, despite the numbers of retirements and death of workers recorded in the system everytime.