• Full digitalisation, open government across MDAs out soon – Yemi-Esan
• Says IPPIS detected 1,618 fake workers
The Federal Government through the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, assured on Tuesday that there won’t be a delay in the payment of July 2023 salaries for civil servants.
She gave the assurance during an interactive session with journalists at the Media Parley to commemorate the 2023 Civil Service Week organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation ( OHCSF).
The theme of this year’s Civil Service Week Celebration is “Digitalization of Work Processes in the Public Service: A Gateway to Efficient Resource Utilization and National Development”.
The clarifications came following report that there were delays in the payment of May and June 2023 salaries.
Madein, in her clarification noted that the delay in the May and June 2023 salaries was due to some bottlenecks beyond the control of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation but assured that modalities had been put in place to ensure that salaries were paid as and when due.
The AGF said, “For May and June, we encountered some difficulties beyond our control but I can assure you that everything has been put in place to ensure that July 2023 salaries are not delayed and will be paid any moment from now.”
Also speaking at the dialogue, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, assured that workers would smile soon.
She was responding to questions surrounding palliatives to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on civil servants.
She noted that a committee that was set up by the government was looking at the idea of transportation allowances among others.
Yemi-Esan also noted that her office was working towards the full digitlisation and open government across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
According to her, the OHCSF was also poised to achieve a minimum of 50% functional official email addresses created in the Service by 2025; minimum of 40% Automation of Ministries’ work processes; minimum of 60% access to government’s services online and the provision of clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply to guarantee the optimalisation of the digitalization policy.
Yemi-Esan further noted that as against previous Civil Service Week, that of 2023 was preceded with a media parley in recognition of the fact that aside providing the platform to interact with Media Executives and Partners, the Media Parley “enables us give significant updates and insights into how we fared as a service undergoing transformation.”
She reeled out the achievements of the OHCSF, she said in the 2022 Civil Service Week, the Office formally presented the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (2021-2025) document also called FCSSIP 25.
“The document,” according to her, ” is designed to put in place, mechanisms for the re-engineering of the Service for increased productivity, quality service delivery and to remain professional and globally competitive.”
She expressed satisfaction that staff training which used to be regarded as a ‘welfare package ‘for a lucky few’ has now been institutionalised in order to have a better equipped workforce and achieve better service delivery.
She also said training before now was not based on Needs Assessment and skills gaps; and opportunities were not provided for talents in the Service to utilise skills acquired from training among others.
Yemi Esan said: “In addressing the aforementioned anomalies through the present implementation of the Strategy, the Office achieved the following: SMAT-P i. Under the Structured Mandatory Assessment-based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and following the successful conduct of Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and development of Standard modules across the three levels of Basic, Intermediate and advanced, the Office has trained 6,007 officers on Salary Grade Levels (SGLs) 07-17.
This comprises: Pilot Training for 1,546 Officers on SGL 07-17 in 2019;159 Officers on SGL 07-10 trained by virtual means in March, 2021; 1,680 Directorate Level Officers trained with advanced SMAT-P Modules in May, 2022; and 1,692 officers on SGL 12–14 trained with Intermediate SMAT-P Modules in September, 2022.
Others are 600 Basic Level Officers on SGL 07-10 trained in December, 2022; while 1,000 Basic Level Officers on SGL 07-10 are already batched for hybrid training which is to commence in August 2023.
LEAD-P ii.
The Office has also Integrated strategic talent sourcing as part of learning and development in the Service. In this regard, the following have been achieved:
The Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) has been Institutionalised; After a training period of 7months, the 1st Batch of 118 LEAD-P Officers Graduated in May, 2022 and were deployed to strategic Departments/Units in MDAs; LEAD-P graduates are currently being mentored by Permanent Secretaries; Selection of 107 Batch 2, LEAD-P interns was concluded in December 2022 and they completed the 4 weeks Training which held from 23rd January – 17th February, 2023; Rotational Posting of the 107 Batch 2 LEAD-P participants to core MDAs and Agencies was completed in May 2023.”
On the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Yemi-Esan, she said it has detected 1,618 fake/illegal employment letters.
She said there has been continuous suspension of officers from IPPIS platform for not uploading their records.
She said 69,854 officers have been verified across the core MDAs in FCT and the six (6) geo-political zones.
She said there are ongoing verification of officers across non-core MDAs in the FCT and the 6 geo-political zones.
She said there has been verification of 205,411 Officers in non-core MDAs, and training of 2,948 end-users in all ministries.
She said 3,657 officers were being investigated by ICPC for not being present for Verification audit; and Completion of verification exercise for 3,465 officers recruited from 2017-2019 and those absorbed into the mainstream.
She equally spoke on the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Scheme and other wide ranging issues relating to the Service.