October 25, (THEWILL) – The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, on Wednesday, warned that any officer whose records could not be verified on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will be delisted from the payroll after Friday, October 27.
The HoS, in a statement signed by the Director of Communications, Mohammed Ahmed, recalled that the Federal Government commenced the implementation of the IPPIS in 2007 with a view to attaining transparency, accuracy, safety and reliability in the management of personnel records, while also curtailing avoidable excesses in personnel costs.
According to the statement, “In 2013, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), being the repository of official records and information on all public servants, was saddled with the responsibility of cleansing the record on the payroll.
“Leveraging on technology, the Office opened a verification portal in April 2017 and directed all public servants to carry out online updates of their records. The office carried out aggressive sensitization and publicity via the official, conventional and social media. An initial period of three months was given for compliance, which was extended to one year, May 2018, to enable all officers to update their records. This was the first phase.
“Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitization visits by IPPIS staff to Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs) nationwide, the second phase of the exercise, the physical verification, commenced in 2018.
“In this regard, 500 staff from the OHCSF were trained and deployed, in well-communicated and coordinated phases, to the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT between 2018 and 2019 to enable officers to carry out the physical verification in their states and save them from travelling to Abuja.
“Having committed substantial financial and human resources over a period of seven years to verify the records of all civil servants on the IPPIS platform, the office was left with no option than to suspend the salaries of those who failed to participate in the exercise with effect from September 2023.
“Consequent upon this, some of the erring officers besieged the OHCSF with pleas to be given the last opportunity to comply. The portal was, therefore, magnanimously reopened from October 3-13, 2023, for them to update their records.
“The officers were then asked to come to Abuja for the physical verification exercise as the office had already committed and exhausted the budgeted funds and unable to further deploy staff to the states for the exercise.
“Adequate arrangements were put in place for a smooth exercise in designated areas of the FCT, however, the officers’ impatience and lack of orderliness in the first two days made the exercise rowdy. This has been duly addressed and the two-week exercise, scheduled to end on Friday, October 27, 2023, is progressing very well.
“However, the verification of records of all Civil Servants will be finalised at the end of the ongoing exercise and any officer whose record could not be verified will be delisted from the payroll of the government.”
