By Jimmy Jackson
The Federal Government has warned that any Federal Government workers whose records could not be verified on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will be delisted on Friday.
This was made known in a statement signed by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, and made available to journalists by her Director of Communications, Mohammed Ahmed, on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to her, the two-week exercise which will end on Friday, October 27, 2023, was put in place as an act of magnanimity for officers who did not take part in the earlier verifications.
The statement said, “In 2013, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), being the repository of official records and information on all Public Servants, was saddled with the responsibility of cleansing the record on the Payroll.
“Leveraging technology, the Office opened a verification portal in April 2017 and directed all public servants to carry out online updates of their records. The office carried out aggressive sensitization and publicity via official, conventional, and social media. An initial period of three months was given for compliance, which was extended to one year, May 2018, to enable all officers to update their records. This was the first phase.
“Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitization visits by IPPIS staff to Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), nationwide, the second phase of the exercise, the physical verification, commenced in 2018.
“In this regard, 500 staff from the OHCSF were trained and deployed, in well-communicated and coordinated phases, to the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT between 2018 and 2019 to enable officers to carry out the physical verification in their states and save them from traveling to Abuja.”
The Head of Civil Service said the office was left with no option than to suspend the salaries of those who failed to participate in the exercise with effect from September 2023, having committed substantial financial and human resources for seven years to verify the records of all civil servants on the IPPIS platform.
“Consequent upon this, some of the erring officers besieged the OHCSF with pleas to be given the last opportunity to comply. The portal was, therefore, magnanimously reopened from October 3-13, 2023 for them to update their records.
“The officers were then asked to come to Abuja for the physical verification exercise as the office had already committed and exhausted the budgeted funds and was unable to further deploy staff to the states for the exercise.
“Adequate arrangements were put in place for a smooth exercise in designated areas of the FCT, however, the officers’ impatience and lack of orderliness in the first two days made the exercise rowdy.
“This has been duly addressed and the two-week exercise, scheduled to end on Friday, October 27, 2023, is progressing very well.
“However, the verification of records of all Civil Servants will be finalized at the end of the ongoing exercise and any officer whose record could not be verified will be delisted from the payroll of government,” the statement concluded.
