The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris on Wednesday, warned operators of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) against contravening laid down rules, stating that any role player found guilty will face the full wrath of the law.
Director, Information, Press and Public Relations, Mr. Henshaw Ogubike who confirmed the development to our correspondent said Mr Idris handed down the warning while addressing trainees at the final phase of the nationwide training for IPPIS Role Players held recently, in Minna, Niger State.
Ogubike quoted the Accountant General of the Federation as saying that “there is no room for compromise and the government will deal decisively with any Role Player involved in any kind of infraction.”
According to the Accountant General, the schedule of every trainee is given in trust and must not be betrayed, adding that they “are expected to be above board” in the discharge of their responsibilities.
IPPIS Role Players are staff of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including tertiary institutions and the Police that have been granted access to carry out certain roles on the centralised IPPIS platform.
Recently, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation announced the decentralisation of the operations of the IPPIS, an action aimed at enabling Ministries, Departments, Agencies, tertiary institutions and the Police to handle some issues in their payroll without necessarily having to come to the IPPIS headquarters in Abuja.
The Accountant General of the Federation, who was represented at the occasion, reminded the IPPIS Role Players that they are an important part of the complex machinery meant to sustain a flawless payroll system and advised that they should be honest, diligent and must correctly apply the ideas gained at the training in carrying out the responsibility assigned to them.
On the Presidential directive that all government personnel should be enrolled on the IPPIS, Idris maintained that although some individuals and associations have attempted to discredit the policy, a large percentage of government personnel have been enrolled on the IPPIS platform.
He assured that more efforts will be made to get the remaining government employees onto the IPPIS platform.
In his remarks at the closing of the training, the Director, IPPIS, Dr. Ben Nsikak commended the Accountant General for approving the training exercise.
He expressed optimism that with the training, the IPPIS Role Players have been adequately equipped to carry out updates and variations in their payroll. He advised the Role Players to limit themselves to the activities that are expected of them.
He said: “At the back end, you can carry out updates, however there are updates that you are not entitled to do at the back end like updating date of first appointment and date of birth. Limit yourselves to the activities that you are expected to do.”
He explained that in order to checkmate the abuse of the processes, updates and variations carried out by the Role Players are to be reviewed by internal auditors in the respective MDAs. Furthermore, the accounting officers in the MDAs are to sign up and take responsibility for whatever updates have been carried out.
While reemphasizing the need for Role Players to live up to their responsibility, Dr. Nsikak confirmed that if and when an anomaly is observed, such would be easily traced back to the individual concerned through the audit trail.
The nationwide training has been successfully held in the six geopolitical zones for IPPIS Role Players in various geopolitical zones of the country.
