By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
In line with the policy of the federal government for zero tolerance for corruption, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. (Mrs) Folashade Yemi-Esan, has revealed that no fewer than 61,446 civil servants from various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been verified on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
She also disclosed that 3,657 civil servants have so far been reported to the Independent and Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) for prosecution over failure to get verified on the new payment platform.
Yemi-Esan who spoke at 44th Session of the State House Briefing Series held at the Press Gallery, State House Abuja on Thursday, July 21, 2022, also briefed the press on key updates in the strides being made, and achievements recorded by the Office of the Head of Civil Service (OHCS) in the execution of its vision to lead a world-class service for accelerated national development.
According to Yemi-Esan, OHCS has recorded many landmark achievements under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, pointing out that the implementation of IPPIS has helped to detect about 1,618 ghost workers while a total of 874 officers have been suspended or assumed to be ghost workers too.
Said she: ” At least 1,618 applicants floated illegal or fake letters as 874 officers have so far been suspended from the IPPIS platform. Only those who have come forward with genuine reasons why they could not be verified are considered and reinstated”.
The number one civil servant in Nigeria also revealed that the federal government saves about N180m monthly and about N2bn annually by implementing IPPIS.
She however boasted that IPPIS can incorporate the salaries of striking university lecturers, she stated that the universities have their own peculiar structure on how to administer their institutions.
Recall the lecturers under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other university-based unions have been on strike since February 14, 2022.
This is even as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had rejected IPPIS in favour of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which, according to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige, said met only one of the three major criteria on its integrity tests.
Speaking specifically on how the Civil Service has changed under her watch, Yemi-Esan posited that Public Service is the engine room for National Development hence her office has worked hard to introduce many innovations in the Civil Service.
According to her, key points of what the OHCSF has done from 2021 include but not limited to the training of the Permanent Secretaries who are driving the Civil Service.
Among the areas they are trained are in Capability Building and Talent Management under Leadership Enhancements And Development (LEAD-P); developing the capacity and capability of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and developed the capacity of Permanent Secretaries.
Performance Management System (PMS) which is one of the performance index, she said plans are at an advanced stage in introducing ISO Certification 9001/2015 in the Service.
Other areas she said OHCS has focused are on Innovation; Digitalisation, revealing that a Content Service Achievements system has been introduced just as OHCS has digitalise all the operations of the Civil Service.
On staff welfare, Yemi-Esan said it is one of the six pillars of the new civil service, stressing that to ensure that Civil Servants have a comfortable accommodation before they retire, the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Programme was introduced.
She disclosed that in 2022, five hectares of land have been secured for FISH-P at Gwagwalada in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to build mass staff quarters while 20 high-capacity buses have already been deployed to solve the transportation problems of Nigerian workers.
