OAGF to migrate all government employees to IPPIS platform

The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) has expressed its determination to ensure that all government employees are migrated to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, stated this in Lagos, on Monday, when he declared open the training workshop for IPPIS role players in Federal Government (FG) agencies and institutions throughout the country.

Idris, who was represented by a Director at the office, Salawu Zubairu, said the special training commenced three weeks ago and has been successfully held in four geopolitical zones, namely; North-West, North-East, South-East and South-South. He said this week, the training will be held simultaneously in the North-Central and in the South-West.

According to him, the IPPIS is one of the key reform initiatives of the FG, which provides a platform for payment of personnel emoluments and maintains a database for information and actions on government workforce.

Idris, who said this position underscores the resolve by the FG to evolve permanent solutions to hitches that may be observed in the operations of the policy, noted that this training workshop, which is in line with this resolve, is meant to keep IPPIS role players abreast with the operations of the policy to enhance their capacity to take full ownership of their respective payrolls and efficiently discharge their responsibilities in the centralised platform.

In introducing the IPPIS into the country’s public service, the government sought to entrench transparency and accountability in the management of the payroll system.

Before the introduction of the IPPIS, the manual payroll system that was in operation made it impossible to determine the number of personnel in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that were paid salaries due to non-availability of necessary data.

“Suffice it to state here that since the inception of the IPPIS, there has been a significant level of transparency in administration of government payroll. The policy has aided efficient management of personnel records, timely payment of salaries and wages, accurate deduction of taxes and other third-party dues, as well as smooth remittance of payroll deductions to third parties. Furthermore, the policy has brought greater efficiency to the planning of personnel emoluments and budget.

“Encouraged by the positive impact that the IPPIS brought to administration of the payroll system, the Federal Government mandated that personnel in all government agencies and institutions that draw salaries from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) be moved to the IPPIS platform. This task, saddled with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, has indeed been energy-sapping due to the peculiarities of some government agencies and institutions.

However, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation has recorded tremendous success as many government personnel have been moved to the IPPIS platform. Let me assure you that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation will not rest on this mandate until all government employees are migrated into the IPPIS platform,” he stressed.