“The wind has blown and we have seen the rump of the fowl”. This Nigerian adage has taken its toll this time as a huge level of deception has been uncovered in the Nigeria Police Force. Nemesis has finally caught up with the looters of federal government funds as improved regulatory standards have been put in place.
Earlier this week, after integrating the payroll of the Nigeria Police into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the Federal Government of Nigeria has discovered 80,115 ghost officers on the force’s payroll.
Before the integration, members of the Nigerian Police on the payroll stood at 371,800. But a subsequent audit from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, showed it to be actually 291,685 with a gross salary of about ₦22.3 billion as explained by Premium Times report.
IPPIS was announced in November 2016 to automate the payroll of civil servants and flush out ghost workers, and it seems to be doing exactly that. IPPIS is a department under the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation responsible for payment of salaries and wages directly to Government employee’s bank account with appropriate deductions and remittances of 3rd party payments.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun said the government has saved over ₦68 billion on personnel cost though the full deployment of the IPPS in the payrolls of Nigeria civil servants.
However, for the payments and remittance of civil servants’ wages, IPPIS is the solution to the database problem in this category and it is also saving lots of money in the process.