THE Federal Government has warned that any officer whose records could not be verified on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will be removed on Friday.
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, said this in a statement, on Wednesday.
The statement signed by Mohammed Ahmed, Director, Communications, in her office, said the two-week exercise which will end on Friday, October 27, 2023, was put in place as an act of magnanimity for officers who did not take part in the earlier verifications.
He 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.
“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 update 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 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 carry out the physical verification in their states and save them from traveling to Abuja,” Mohammed said.
He said having committed substantial financial and human resources over a period of seven years to verify the records 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.
He said, “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.”
He insisted that the aforementioned officers are the architects of their inconveniences for not being compliant with official directives.
He said, “However, the verification of records of all Civil Servants will be finalized at the end of the ongoing exercise and any officer whose record could not be verified will be delisted from the payroll of government.”
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