TheCable

The federal government says it has uncovered 1,618 civil servants with fake employment letters.

According to Punch, Folashade Yemi-Esan, head of civil service of the federation announced the discovery on Tuesday while speaking with journalists ahead of the 2023 civil servants week.

She said the civil servants with fake employment letters were detected after the introduction of control mechanisms to address loopholes identified in the integrated personnel and payroll personnel information system (IPPIS).

“As you are aware, prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS, the system was bedevilled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ghost workers,” she said.

She said the inauguration of a committee on enrollment of newly recruited civil servants and other initiatives brought about “the detection of 1,618 fake/illegal employment letters; continuous suspension of officers from IPPIS platform for not uploading their records; and verification of 69,854 officers across the core MDAs in FCT and the six geo-political zones”.

Yemi-Esan said the affected workers have been suspended from the IPPIS platform and have been handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for proper investigation and prosecution.

She added that a committee is working towards salary harmonisation in the civil service and an upward review of staff duty tour allowance.

According to the head of service, the government will get insurance coverage for federal civil servants from February 9, 2023, to February 9, 2024.

She said efforts are on to ensure the payment of the backlog of death benefits to over 1,500 deceased officers to their beneficiaries from 2021 to date.