The Federal Government has inaugurated a Presidential Steering Committee to review Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). The committee was inaugurated on Friday in Abuja by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, who serves as the chairman of the committee.
They would also review the Treasury Single Account(TSA) and Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS), which are to be reviewed over irregularities, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The IPPIS has created a dispute between the federal government of Nigeria and the Academic Staff Union which has lingered for months, causing a pause in academic activities and disrupting the academic calendar of Nigerian students.
Pantami revealed that the committee would be supervised by the ministry and other relevant government institutions and mandated to proffer solutions to the possible leakages inherent in the systems that were exploited by people to divert public funds.
- “This technical committee has been mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari, through a letter requesting his approval to review some of the technical processes and systems deployed in government.
- “This committee will serve as a presidential committee with the mandate of ensuring the review of the strengths of these systems and the challenges or weaknesses.
- “The committee is to advise the president on how to improve the systems particularly if there are leakages that are being exploited by evil people.
- “The issue came about on July 19, 2022, when we had a meeting with the president along with other ministries where some technical issues and some challenges were discussed,” he said.
He added that the process of deployment for IPPIS commenced in 2006, that of GISFMIS in 2012, while TSA commenced in 2015 accordingly, citing that the provision of NITDA Act 2006 under section A of setting the standardisation of ICT deployment in federal public institutions was not followed.
- ”These three systems were not subjected to government certification and IT project clearance as encouraged by law and many other government policies.
- “However, in spite of that, many achievements had been recorded by their deployment.
- “For example, based on the report from the relevant institutions of government, the IPPIS saved the government over N120 billion, while TSA saved over N10 trillion for government,” he said.
He added the necessity is to identify where the challenges are if any and see how these systems can be enhanced technically.
- The Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPIS) system is a centralised payroll platform by the Federal Government that helps the Government plan and manages its payroll budget whilst also ensuring there’s no loophole in the disbursement of payment.
- Instituted in April 2007, the platform’s data is used by the body responsible for the payment of salaries and wages directly to the employee’s bank account with the necessary deductions such as taxes, insurance and all, made automatically.
- University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) is a payment system created by ASUU for the federal government to use to pay its members’ salaries.
