AGF drills Varsities on IPPIS, says platform saved N273bn for FG in two years
The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris, has revealed that between 2017 and 2018, the Federal Government saved not less than N273bn from the growing adoption of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) Platform.
In his address Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with Vice Chancellors, Registrars and Bursars of Federal Universities, he explained that the enrolment of Universities on IPPIS Platform has become pertinent so as to deepen probity, transparency and accountability in Government expenditure.
He recalled that a Presidential Directive to all MDAs to key into the platform had been given since 2018 in order to among other things; a centralize payroll systems of the Federal Government; To facilitate easy storage, updating and retrieval of personal record for administrative and pension processing; To ascertain the actual personnel emoluments of the Federal Government; To aid manpower planning and budgeting; and to comply with the global best practice.
Idris recalled further that “Prior to 2015 the total number of Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) on IPPIS was 288 with a total staff counts of 235,858. However, as at today the total MDAs on IPPIS Platform is 561 with a total staff counts of over 755,422”.
“The cumulative savings achieved on IPPIS Platform between 2017 and 2018 was N273, 809,842,071.99. These savings will have been lost, but now available for government to deploy for other uses.
“In total compliance with the Presidential directive; the Nigeria Police and the Para-Military Agencies are already been paid on IPPIS Platform. The enrolment of the Nigeria Military- Army, Navy and Airforce have just been concluded and a Trial payroll is on-going. In a similar vein, the enrolment of Federal Polytechnics is scheduled for early July, 2019.
According to him, “It is a known fact that the Universities are sceptical about the capacity and the capability of IPPIS to accommodate their peculiarities as well as fear of losing their autonomy. I wish to assure you that IPPIS does not only have the capacity to accommodate 2 Million federal employees, its payroll applications are flexible enough to accommodate all peculiarities such as sabbatical, visitation, honorarium and earned allowances etc as the case may be of the Universities”.
Idirs averred further that “The centralized payroll will be prepared by individual Universities but co-ordinated by IPPIS while the total management of the Human Resources rest squarely with the Universities. This will not in any way compromised the autonomy of Universities. Therefore, the purpose of this gathering is to seek your co-operation to achieve a seamless enrolment that will be win-win game for both the Universities and the Government. Universities should be the best ground for entrenching reforms towards transparency and good governance”.
