FG to prosecute workers collecting multiple salaries
NIGERIA Federal Government yesterday, vowed that any government employee taking advantage of the loopholes in the payroll system to collect multiple salaries would be fished out and prosecuted.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who gave the warning in Abuja, also stated that the government would ensure that all its employees were enrolled on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System.
She lamented that since the commencement of the IPPIS platform five years ago, only 20 per cent of government workers had enrolled on it.
The IPPIS is one of the Federal Government’s reform initiatives designed to undertake human resource management activities from recruitment to separation, including payroll and pension processing.
It also facilitates planning; aids budgeting; monitors monthly payment of staff emoluments against what is provided for in the budget; ensures database integrity; and facilitates easy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pension processes.
The minister also stated that the Federal Government had successfully completed a pilot programme that used Bank Verification Number details to fish out ‘ghost workers’ and identify other irregular entries on the payroll.
Adeosun said the pilot project was initiated as a solution to the slow pace of progress being encountered in the enrolment of government workers on the IPPIS.
She said, “We believe that the use of the BVN rather than requiring physical presentation as a first-line check on the integrity of our payroll is a cost-effective and efficient measure. This will accelerate the pace of enrolment on the IPPIS as well as identify anomalies, which can be flagged for further investigation and review.
“To date, despite over five years since initiation of the project, just 20 per cent of public employees have actually been enrolled on the IPPIS due to a variety of reasons. As part of our public financial management reforms, we are committed to scrutinising our largest single expense item. Personnel-related costs account for over 40 per cent of government expenditure and must be prudently managed to ensure the validity of every payment.
“We are, therefore, determined that everyone who collects a salary from the federal purse is on the IPPIS system.”
The minister commended the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Plc for their co-operation in ensuring the success of the BVN project.
She noted that under the BVN, more than 30 million biometric and personal data records had been captured.
Adeosun added, “The BVN provides a pool of reliable data against which records held on the Federal Government’s payroll will be cross-checked to identify inconsistencies, including duplicate payments, payments to dormant accounts, multiple payments to a single account holder, and non-matching of data provided, among others.
“Genuine members of staff have nothing to be concerned about; but those who are collecting multiple salaries and those engaged in any type of payroll fraud are guaranteed to be caught out.”
She said the Finance ministry had put in place control measures to check those seeking to transfer their salary-receiving accounts to microfinance banks, mortgage banks and other non-BVN accounts in order to evade detection.
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