Seventy thousand ghost workers have been “eliminated” from the Federal Government payroll through the Integration Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
With their removal from salary list and hitherto wrong management of the IPPIS, government has been able to save N22O billion, said the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dasuki Arabi.
Arabi also disclosed that the government saved N10 trillion following the introduction of the Single Treasury Account (TSA) 10 years ago.
He put the current number of federal civil servants to 720,000.
Arabi disclosed these while giving an update on the activities of the BPSR to reporters at the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team in Abuja yesterday
According to him, the government has also been able to save more than N220 billion hitherto wasted on the wrong management of the IPPIS on payroll by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
He said: “These are some of the benefits that we think government or Nigerians have benefited out of the work that we have been doing in collaboration with other agencies of government, where they with the introduction of IPPIS about 70,000 ghost workers have been eliminated from the payroll.
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“We have a one-shot opportunity to look at IPPIS and say, as of today, we have 720,000 public servants working for Nigeria.
“We have been able to reduce more than N220 billion wastage through wrong management of IPPIS on payroll by MDAs. We have reduced the budget deficits and changed the budget composition.
“We have succeeded in getting the Treasury Single Account deployed in all MDAs. Challenges have come in that implementation at the initial stage, but we are overcoming that and government is able to save over N10 trillion over the years because whatever you’re generating now goes into a Treasury Single Account that is managed by somebody else, not you.
“And the government, especially at the top is always able to see what has come into our Treasury Single Account today and what has gone out of that. So planning has been simplified. Budgeting has been simplified.
“Our distribution and allocation of resources have been simplified and streamlined.”.
On deductions blamed on the IPPIS, which has been a source of friction, especially between government and university unions, Arabi affirmed that they (deductions) just do not occur on their own except where loans had been obtained.
His words: “You know we have just started with six pilot ministries, We later went to 10 then because of the push by the international community, especially our development partners, who are really eager to get Nigeria at that level at par with other nations.
“For every deduction that is done, there is justification for it. Quite a number of our colleagues may have taken loans and deductions are being made.”
Arabi revealed that the government was silently implementing some aspects of the Oransanye Report on Civil Service Reforms, adding that an announcement will soon be made on its implementation.
He said as part of the reforms in the service, the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIGMIS) has made government business paperless thereby reducing man-to-man contact, processing and payments in MDAs.
The director-general said: “Transparency has been improved. A lot of things are done even outside the office. But the most important thing is the ability given to central agencies- office of Accountant- General of the Federation- and Ministry of Finance to see what is happening in all MDAs.”
