The federal government has said it has concluded the verification of 69,854 core civil servants receiving salaries under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, who made this known in Abuja during a news conference to commence the 2023 Civil Service Week, said her office had been working towards the implementation of Human Resource Module of IPPIS with a view to bridging the identified gaps in the system.
According to her, the investigation of 3,657 officers by ICPC for not being present for verification audit, and completion of verification exercise for 3,465 officers recruited from 2017 to 2019 and those absorbed into the mainstream were ongoing.
“As you are aware, prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS, the system was bedeviled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ghost workers among others,” he said.
Yemi-Esan said her office had also begun the verification of non-core MDAs by registering about 205,411 officers in those MDAs, that they have also started to work on the non-core MDAs, saying that so far they have registered about 205,411 officers that are not core civil servants, officers that work in agencies and parastatals of government.
“The next step is that we will go ahead and verify these officers to ensure that all the documents are correct and then we move them into the IPPIS for salaries. The exercise would be conclude by 2024,” she said.
The head of civil service while speaking on workers’ salaries, assured the civil servants of the federal government’s determination to review and harmonise the salaries of workers in the service.
According to her, the Presidential Committee on Salary Harmonisation was already on course, working to review salaries to reduce the disparities among the Nigerian workers.
Yemi-Esan said the pensioners were not left out in the arrangements of pension structure to meet with the presence economy realities by the retirees in the country.
The head of civil service further announced that the Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) system, would no longer be the criteria to assess civil Servants’ performance for promotion begining from 2024.
She said government was working assiduously to ensure the full implementation of Performance Management System (PMS) in replacement of APER to assess civil servants.
“The concept is not new to government. As you are aware, performance contracts and agreements were being used by government before now. Also, some agencies of government have begun implementing an ideal PMS and are at different stages of evolution,” she said.
The head of civil service also said that the federal government would use the service week to announce the new Public Service Rule to guide all the civil servants in the country.
Yemi-Esan expressed gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for his concern for the welfare of workers and for his determination to deliver a living wage to civil servants in line with the renewed hope agenda of his administration.
