By Precious Olisa
The federal government has threatened to stop paying salaries of unidentified workers on its payroll, saying it was determined the loopholes in the civil service.
The Head of Civil Service, Mrs Folashade Yemi Esan, confirmed this development, noting that it was to tackle the prevalence of ghost workers on the government’s payroll.
She said the unverified employees of the government would be fished out with the implementation of the Human Resources (HR) software designed to capture accurate data of workers.
According to her, the software will be implemented by the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPS) in line with the federal government’s commitment to ensure transparency and accountability in civil service.
“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.
“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,” she said.
Recall that in 2013, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, 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 technology, a verification portal was opened in April 2017 and all public servants were directed to carry out online updates of their records.
The office, it added, carried out aggressive sensitisation and publicity via 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.
“Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitisation visits by IPPIS staff to Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments, and Agencies 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 to from travelling to Abuja,” a statement from the office said.
It was disclosed that some erring officers’ pleas to be given the last opportunity to comply were granted, adding that the portal was, therefore, reopened from October 3-13, 2023, for them to update their records till Friday, October 27, 2023.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale