Business
How Nigeria saved over N230bn from IPPIS, says Accountant General
Muhammadu Buhari
Says varsities, polytechnic workers must be enrolled
Accountant – General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, has said that the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, has saved the country of over N230billion loss in the last three years.
The IPPIS is an information Communications Technology, ICT, project initiated by the Federal Government to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of payroll administration for its Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.
Idris who dropped the hint on Monday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance during budget defence session, explained that Nigeria gained over N50billion, N100billion and N80billion respectively in 2017, 2018 and 2019 which would have been lost to fictitious payment of salaries and pensions.
According to him , the IPPIS is one of the Public Finance Reform Initiatives of his office which will make government make more money once workers in public universities and polythecnics are enrolled on the IPPIS payment scheme in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive in his 2020 budget speech that all federal government workers must be enlisted.
He said workers in those tertiary institutions would be compelled to submit to government decsion.
Other Initiatives of the Office under his leadership, he said, include, the Treasury Single Account, TSA, the GPMIS budget execution platform, Audit laboratory and audit modernisation through IT audit driven system.
The Accountant General said the office has 18 departments domiciled in its Abuja headquarters, 36 federal pay offices in the 36 states of the federation, six zonal offices and the Federal Treasury Academy which is the training arm of the office.
Defending receipt and spending of capital vote in its annual budget, he said construction of permanent federal pay offices are ongoing in some states, rehabilitation works carried out at the head office, money expended on the Treasury Academy.
The chairman, Senate committee on f Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan commended the Office of the Accountant General for its many reform Initiatives in public finance.
Senator Adeola said there is the need for the the Committee to meet with the office of the Accountant General, revenue generating agencies and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to fine-tune further revenue generating methods
He said there should be concerted effort by revenue generating agencies to meet the N3.17 trillion earmarked from Other Revenues in the 2020 budget proposal
The chairman promised that the committee will make all efforts to make the Fiscal Responsibility Commission more responsible to its statutory functions.
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