…Heads To Roll As Probe Widens
John Ugo
Tension and anxiety have mounted among workers and heads of monistries, departments and agencies as the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation has announced the suspension of payment of salaries of 243 suspected ‘ghost’ workers.
The affected workers are in the ministries of Information and Culture; Labour and Employment; Agriculture and Rural Development; Education; Works and Housing; and Youths and Sports Development.
It was said other departments and agencies where ‘ghost’ workers were uncovered were the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and some Federal Government colleges.
The disclosure was made in a circular with the reference number: HCSF/CSO/HRM/1137/Vol.1/T6/31 signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Career Management Office, OHCSF, Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, in Abuja.
The circular read in part, “It will be recalled that in an effort to roll out the human resource module of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation issued various circulars calling on public servants to update their records online on the IPPIS verification platform.
“The office carried out sensitisation and publicity in both the print and audio media to further draw the attention of public servants to this very important exercise.
“The exercise was meant to facilitate the identification of ‘ghost’ workers in order to curtail avoidable financial excesses in personnel costs, while also ensuring credible staff records.
“Consequently, the verification portal was opened for all public servants from April 2017 to May 2018 to enable them carry out the online records’ updates. Another opportunity was given from November 2019 to March 2020. However, despite all the publicity and circulars to Ministries, Department and Agencies, some employees in the core MDAs did not comply with this directive and were suspected as ‘ghost’ workers.
“The salaries of 243 officers in the attached list have been suspended from the IPPIS platform immediately. Officers in the list are, therefore, advised to appear in person at the office of the Permanent Secretary, CMO of the OHCSF before April 15, 2022 with all relevant documents and credentials to prove that they were duly employed by the Federal Civil Service Commission.”
In the list, the OHCSF identified 91 officers from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, headed by Dr Chris Ngige; and 48 from the Ministry of Information and Culture, headed by Lai Mohammed, among others.
