The claim made by aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, that his principal “started, initiated, completed and implemented” the Integrated Payroll and Personal System (IPPIS) in 2013 is false, as the system did not start under Jonathan and was yet to be fully adopted at the last full year of his administration in 2014.
In a series of tweets hashtagged “BuhariDemocrayDayLies”, Omokri said President Buhari attributed and credited some achievement of the past administrations to himself.
“I just watched President Buhari’s Democracy Day Speech and I am stunned at the level of lies contained in just one speech. I will now enumerate his lies one by one.”
He then vowed to debunk what he claimed were lies in President Buhari’s speech, but what he presented were distorted facts paraded as evidence.
President Buhari said “The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit set up with a mandate to validate controls, assess risks, prune personnel costs, ensure compliance with Public Financial Management reforms has helped to identify and remove over 52,000 ghost workers from the Federal Government MDAs Payroll.”
In disagreement, Omokri asserts it was former President Jonathan that started the system and embedded a Vanguard story with the headline “Jonathan sets deadline for implementation of new system”, to substantiate his claim.
According to the story, which was published in July 2013, President Jonathan had directed the Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) to fully implement the IPPIS by the end of the year.
This was after the initial adoption saved the Federal Government about N119 billion.
Reno counters “lies” with lies
According to the website of IPPIS; www.ippis.com.ng, the system was conceptualized in October 2006, after the “Pilot Phase implementation” which was financed by World Bank, was implemented earlier in February of the same year.
The programme “went live” in April 2007 “with seven (7) Pilot MDAs, and its management was transferred to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) in October 2008.”
It clarified that prior to the adoption of the system, the nominal rolls of the Seven Pilot MDAs submitted indicated 55,000 staff, and the World Bank financed the exact number, but after the enrolment, it was discovered that workforce was 32,000, and“therefore additional eleven (11) MDAs were brought on board in July 2009.”
The website also stated that the “Phase II Service-wide implementation” began in September 2011, after the National Executive Council (NEC) approved the enrolment of all MDAs that draw their Personnel Cost from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) into the IPPIS. It also noted that the enrolment would be in “batches” and would be financed by the Federal Government.
Before 2011, the MDAs under the IPPIS were the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Transportation (Works arm), Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget Office of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Information, Federal Ministry of Transport, Federal Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and National Planning Commission.
Others are Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Federal Ministry of Aviation, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Federal Civil Service Commission, Federal Ministry of Works (Housing & Urban Development), Federal Ministry of Information (Communication), Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, and Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Although Jonathan had instructed the full implementation of the system, by the end of his tenure in 2015, the system was yet to be fully implemented in Nigeria, even as at the time of filing this report.
As at May 2018, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris said, in about 900 MDAs in the Country, the Federal Government have moved the salaries of workers in only 480 MDAs to the IPPIS.
This shows the system is yet to be fully implemented, nor can it be said to be completed as claimed by Omokri.
It can also be clarified that the IPPIS did not start under Jonathan’s administration, its conception and initial implementation was between Obasanjo/Yar’Adua administrations.
