IPPIS: ICPC To Investigate 3,657 Civil Servants As FG Verifies 61,446 Workers

The Independent and Corrupt Practices and Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) is set to investigate 3,657 civil servants over failure to get verified on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, made this known on Thursday, during a chat with State House correspondents at Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

She said 61,446 civil servants from various government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies have been verified on the system.

During a slide presentation, Yemi-Esan stated that at least 1,618 applicants floated illegal or fake letters as 874 officers have so far been suspended from the IPPIS platform. She stated that the IPPIS saves the government about N180m monthly and about N2bn annually.

The HoS said IPPIS can also accommodate the salaries of striking university lecturers.

However, lecturers, under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, have been on strike since February 14, 2022.

ASUU had rejected IPPIS in favour of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution which, according to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has only met one of the three major criteria on its integrity tests: user acceptability. UTAS, he said, failed two other tests relating to its immunity from cyberattacks.

Asked about the delayed implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye report, she said this is partly because the report is old and needs to be updated by another committee.

The report was submitted to the federal government in 2011 and recommended that 263 of the statutory government agencies at the time should be reduced to 161, 38 agencies should be abolished, and 52 agencies should be merged.

Yemi-Esan said, “Because the Oronsaye report is old, we also have a second Committee that looked at the new institutions that have been set up even after the Oronsaye Committee Report. S

“So those two committees have concluded their work and have submitted their report to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. What is happening now is that there is another committee that is drafting the white paper.”