POLITICS
FG Enrols 711 MDAs on IPPIS Platform
The Federal Government, says it has enrolled 711 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform.
The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Ahmed Idris, made this known in Lagos on Monday, at a training for IPPIS Role Players in the South-West.
Idris, who was represented by Mr Salawu Zubairu, Director, Consolidated Account, office of the AGF, said the number enrolled was out of a thousand MDAs in the country.
The AGF said that his office would not relent on its mandate, until all government employees were migrated into the IPPIS platform.
He said the Federal Government was desirous to decentralise the management of payroll, so that any issue encountered in the implementation of IPPIS, could be resolved without travelling down to Abuja.
According to him, the training is to ensure that IPPIS role players understand operations of the policy of the platform.
He said the special training commenced three weeks ago, and had been successfully held in four geopolitical zones of North-West, North-East, South-East and South-South, while that of North-Central and South-West were simultaneously, currently being held.
”IPPIS is one of the key reform initiatives of the Federal Government. It provides a platform for payment of personnel emoluments and maintains a database for information and actions on government workforce.
”This position underscores the resolve by the Federal Government to evolve permanent solutions to hitches that may be observed in the operations of the policy.
”This training, which is in line with this resolve, is meant to keep IPPIS role players abreast of operations of the policy, to enhance their capacity to take full ownership of their respective payrolls, and efficiently discharge their responsibilities in the centralised platform.
”In introducing the IPPIS into the country’s public service, the government seeks to entrench transparency and accountability in the management of the payroll system.
”Prior to introduction of the IPPIS, the manual payroll system that was in operation, made it impossible to determine the number of personnel in MDAs, that were paid salaries, due to non-availability of necessary data,” Idris said.
The AGF said that since inception of IPPIS, there had been significant level of transparency in administration of government payroll.
He said the policy had aided efficient management of personnel records, timely payment of salaries and wages, accurate deduction of taxes and other third-party dues, as well as smooth remittances of payroll deductions to third parties.
Idris said the task, vested with the office of the AGF, had been energy-sapping, due to the peculiarities of some government agencies and institutions.
He said the government would continually seek fresh ideas, adopt new strategies and implement requisite plans to seal all leakages, in order to sustain a flawless payroll and personnel management system.
”I beseech you to give this training the necessary attention and make good use of the information on the operations of the policy.
”You must see this training as a call to national service. Your ability to honestly and correctly apply the ideas gained at this training, becomes your own contribution to nation building.
”At present, Nigeria needs men and women with high level of integrity, dexterity, honesty, diligence and sense of purpose to help reposition it for the better.
”As a role player, you are an important part of the complex machinery that is meant to ensure success of the IPPIS policy,” Idris said.
One of the participants, Ms Mercy Omezi, from the National Institute for Sports, Lagos, said that salary remained important integral of every public servant.
“There will be serious problems, if public servants are not being paid their salaries,” she said.
She added that it was her expectations that at the end of the training, issues surrounding arrears, unpaid salaries would be resolved without visiting Abuja.
Another participant, Mrs Mabel Enosolease, from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin, said the training would reduce the risk of traveling to Abuja always.
Enosolease said the training would help role players resolve issues like failed transactions and third party deductions among others. (NAN)
POLITICS
INEC Staff Welfare Association Warns Members Against Manipulating Election Results
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
POLITICS
Be Thankful APC Didn’t Probe Your Administrations, Okechukwu Tells PDP
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)POLITICS
LG Administration Central to Democracy in Nigeria -Nwoko
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)