TheCable

The federal government says it has suspended salaries of 331 civil servants for alleged failure to comply with the rules of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform.

The federal government introduced the IPPIS in 2006 to weed ghost workers from the civil service and automate salary payment for transparent and accountability in public expenditure.

In a circular issued on June 9, Folasade Yemi-Ẹsan, head of service of the federation, said the affected civil servants failed to participate in the physical verification exercise conducted for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) between June 2018 and December 2020.

The circular noted that several circulars issued for the workers to comply with the directive to update their records on the verification portal have been disregarded.

The head of service further enjoined the affected workers to visit the office of the director in charge of the verification exercise to get more information and update their records.

In 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had prosecuted ‘ghost workers’ who received N9.7m salary in three years.

In February, the federal government set new guidelines to check employment fraud on the IPPIS platform.