Ghost Workers: FG Parleys 40 Non-Core MDAs on IPPIS-HR Module

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja 

In a bid to curb the menace of ghost workers, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), has held an Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System – Human Resource (IPPIS-HR), sensitisation programme for officers on grade levels 12 and above from 40 selected non-core Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The programmme under the Fiscal Governance and Institutions’ Project (FGIP), World Bank Assisted, was declared open by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoSF), Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office (SPSO), Dr. Deborah Odoh, the HoSF disclosed that at inception, the implementation of IPPIS focused mainly on payroll not the HR component, given government’s desire to block financial leakages in personnel cost occasioned by the infiltration of ghost workers into the service.

 She decried that this created a gap leading to series of implementation issues. 

“The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation commenced activities towards the implementation of the Human Resource (HR) module of IPPIS to bridge some of the identified gaps,” she said.

She noted that the HR component of IPPIS was one the six major priority areas of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025 (FCSSIP-25) and urged the strengthening the implementation of the IPPIS-HR in the selected 40 MDAs, as a matter of national importance.

The HoSF tasked the participants to transmit the outcome of the session to their respective MDAs to ensure the institutionalisation of an IPPIS-HR that is reliable, credible and free from corrupted HR data. 

Dr Yemi-Esan acknowledged the support received from the World Bank, under the FGIP, towards ensuring the successful implementation of IPPIS.. 

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Career Management (CMO), OHCSF, Mr Adeleye Adeoye, represented by the Consultant on IPPIS, Mrs Anne Atta, urged non-core MDAs to be resolute in the implementation of the Module, noting the implementation of IPPIS-HR in MDAs seeks to achieve the overall objectives of the scheme aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the storage of personnel records and attaining transparency, accuracy, safety and reliability in the management of records.

He, however, lamented that despite its introduction, since 2013, many public servants were apathetic of its existence and could not differentiate between the various components of IPPIS. 

He further explained that the sensitisation programme was necessitated by a recent survey carried out by the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information, Service wide (IPPIS-SW) Department in the core MDAs tagged, “Chat Room Forum,” which showed that majority of officers associated it with payroll, only.