The Federal Government ok. Tuesday suspended the salaries of 243 civil searvants who failed to participate in the verification exercises organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The affected workers are suspected to be ghost workers, as they failed to update their records online on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
This was contained in a circular with the reference number: HCSF/CSO/HRM/1137/Vol.1/T6/31 signed by the Permanent Secretary,Career Management Office, in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation,Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, said the Federal Government had on December 26, 2021, threatened to suspend the salaries of 1,173 of its workers by January, 2022, if they fail to comply with the directives.
The circular partly reads: “It will be recalled that in an effort to roll out the human resource module of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation issued various circulars calling on public servants to update their records online on the IPPIS verification platform.
“The office carried out sensitisation and publicity in both the print and audio media to further draw the attention of public servants to this very important exercise.
“The exercise was meant to facilitate the identification of ‘ghost’ workers in order to curtail avoidable financial excesses in personnel costs, while also ensuring credible staff records.
“Consequently, the verification portal was opened for all public servants from April 2017 to May 2018 to enable them to carry out the online records’ updates. Another opportunity was given from November 2019 to March 2020.
“However, despite all the publicity and circulars to Ministries, Department and Agencies, some employees in the core MDAs did not comply with this directive and were suspected as ‘ghost’ workers.
“The salaries of 243 officers in the attached list have been suspended from the IPPIS platform immediately. Officers in the list are, therefore, advised to appear in person at the office of the Permanent Secretary, CMO of the OHCSF before April 15, 2022, with all relevant documents and credentials to prove that they were duly employed by the Federal Civil Service Commission.”
The affected workers are drawn from the Ministries of Information and Culture; Labour and Employment; Agriculture and Rural Development; Education; Works and Housing; and Youth and Sports Development.
Other departments and agencies where ghost workers were uncovered, according to the circular, include the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and some Federal Government Colleges across the country.
