HoSF: 3,657 Federal Civil Servants Facing Prosecution over IPPIS

* Says govt saves N2bn yearly through pay system

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

No fewer than 3,657 federal civil servants have been dragged before the Independent and Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission (ICPC) for prosecution for failing to get verified on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The implementation of IPPIS has also resulted in federal government saving N2 billion annually.
The Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Mrs. Folashade Yemi-Esan, disclosed this yesterday while appearing on the weekly ministerial press briefing at the State House, Abuja.

She also revealed that a total of 61,446 civil servants in the core Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have now been verified.
According to her, another 1,618 applicants were found to have used illegal or fake letters while 874 officers have been suspended from IPPIS platform.

Yemi-Esan noted that about N180 million was being saved on a monthly basis and about N2 billion annually from the implementation of the IPPIS.
The HoSF also assured that IPPIS could accommodate the salaries of university lecturers who have since rejected it in preference for University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which was yet to pass relevant integrity tests.

On why the government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) could not agree on the use of the IPPIS for their payments, Yemi-Esan said the platform could be suitably adapted to accommodate them if both parties agree to work at it.
Asked why Permanent Secretaries were prone to corruption going by the number of those recently prosecuted and jailed, she explained that most of them get jailed for offences they did not directly commit.

The HoSF described the position of a permanent secretary as precarious, urging those promoted into the office to celebrate less and be cautious in carrying out their duties.

According to her: “This is because even when somebody else has committed a crime, it is the Permanent Secretary that will be held liable for that. That is what the Procurement Act has done to permanent secretaries

“We had a procurement retreat, where jailed permanent secretaries were talked about in very great details.
“I think it is called vicarious liability. When somebody else commits a crime, it is the Permanent Secretary that will be held responsible and that is what the Procurement Act says today.”

She disclosed that her office has been having sensitisation workshops/retreats for appointed permanent secretaries on their need to observe due processes in their duty in order to avoid falling victims of the Public Procurement Act.

According to her, newly appointed Permanent Secretaries were learning from the experience of their predecessors, especially those who had fallen victims, on the need to be more careful in the course of their duties so as not to breach the law.

Her words: “So we are learning lessons from all those things as a body of permanent secretaries. And the good thing is that the permanent secretaries we have now are not transactional permanent secretaries anymore. They’re transformative, permanent secretaries. And I’m sure that we will not have any of these problems with any of the permanent secretaries today”.