‘Nigeria saved over N230b from IPPIS’

– To begin full implementation month-end

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, has disclosed that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) implementation saved the country over N230b in three years.

IPPIS is an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project initiated by the Federal Government to improve the effectiveness of payroll administration for its Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

Idris, who made the disclosure yesterday before the Senate Committee on Finance during his budget defence session, explained that the country gained over N50 billion in 2017, N100 billion in 2018 and N80 billion this year, which would have been lost to fictitious payment of salaries and pensions.

According to him, the IPPIS is one of the Public Finance Reform Initiatives of his office, which will leave more money in government’s coffers once workers in public universities and polytechnics enrol in the scheme, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive in his 2020 budget speech.

He said workers in those tertiary institutions would be compelled to submit to the government’s decision.

Meanwhile, the government has reiterated its commitment to the full implementation of IPPIS before the month-end.

Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, Acting Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at a capacity building workshop organised by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM).

Idris, while defending his 2020 budget proposal before the James Faleke-led House of Representatives Committee on Finance, canvassed a review of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

He maintained that the quest to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) could be actualised once the legislation is reviewed.

Acknowledging that the government was keen on raising over N3 trillion in the 2020 fiscal year, he asserted that his outfit needed the legal teeth to compel revenue-generating MDAs to remit actual monies raised as revenues to the Federation Account.