FG commences payment of ASUU’s withheld salaries

The Federal Government has commenced the payment of the withheld salaries of academics under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.  Multiple sources in the academic sector confirmed the development to our correspondent in Abuja on Monday. The chairperson, ASUU at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof. Gbolahan Bolarin, who confirmed the development on the record, said, “Yes, it is true. Payment has started rolling in.” President Bola Tinubu Tinubu had in October 2023 approved the release of four of the eight months’ ASUU withheld salaries of the workers. The salaries were withheld when the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against some university-based unions that embarked on a strike that lasted eight months in 2022. The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, recently said the government has increased the university workers’ salaries by 35 per cent. The minister also said the government has granted autonomy to the universities by removing them from the Integrated Payment and Payroll Information System . He added that the universities no longer need a waiver to recruit and fill their vacancies. These resolutions were reached through informal consultations with the unions based in the tertiary institutions, Mamman said.

IPPIS: Be Verified By Friday Or Face Deletion, FG Warns Civil Servants

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan has warned civil servants that have not been verified that they risk being delisted from the government payroll. The government has given Friday, October 27 2023 as the deadline for all civil servants to be verified. Yemi-Esan said the development is a result of the two-week Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) verification exercise which will end on Friday. The move is part of an effort to remove ghost workers from the government payroll. In a statement signed by Yemi-Esan on Wednesday “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. “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”. Speaking further, she noted that the Office carried out aggressive sensitization and publicity, adding that no excuses will be tolerated for defaulters. According to the statement, “Sequel to another wide publicity accompanied by numerous pre-verification sensitization visits by IPPIS staff to Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments, and Agencies 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 travelling to Abuja. “Some erring officers’ pleas to be given the last opportunity to comply were granted, and the portal was therefore reopened from October 3-13, 2023, for them to update their records to Friday, October 27, 2023, before action is taken on defaulters.”

Salary Padding: Tinubu suspends IPPIS Assistant Director, others

President Bola Tinubu Suspends Assistant Director In Charge Of IPPIS, Others In OAGF For Salary Padding. Many civil servants across several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) have been suspended for alleged salary padding on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS). The allegation was confirmed by RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Bello Shehu, who said those identified had been placed on suspension pending investigation. The affected workers were found to have manipulated the IPPIS system to pad their salaries above their threshold. An Assistant Director at the OAGF in charge of staff salary was alleged to have connived with some staff to pad up the salaries of unspecified number of lower level staff. The scheme was discovered when a level 7 officer whose salary should be in the range of N60,000 was paid over N400,000, which was in the range of a salary package of a Director. The salary padding racket had been on for a while among a small clique of civil servants in different MDAs with the IPPIS office with the OAGF as the epicentre. Reacting to the development, the OAGF in a statement said it was, “in receipt of enquiries over alleged ‘salary padding’ on the IPPIS involving some unspecified MDAs.” “In the meantime, a staff suspected to be connected with the breach has been suspended to allow for thorough investigation. “All necessary steps are being taken to strengthen the controls around the IPPIS payment platform and an independent forensic audit of the entire payroll system is underway to ascertain if the reported breach is isolated or widespread,” Shehu said. He said if the indicted officials were found culpable of the salary padding allegations, they would be handed over to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.