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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Folashade Yemi-Esan, has revealed the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) verification exercises have identified 1,618 civil servants with ‘fake/illegal’ employment letters.
On the other hand, 69,308 civil servants who participated in the compulsory verification exercise have been fully integrated into the IPPIS after their verifications.
Yemi-Esan made the disclosure during a meeting with media executives in Abuja to commemorate the 2024 Civil Service Week celebration.
She also highlighted the efforts to build capacity and talent of civil servants, noting that 8,905 workers were trained under the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2021-2025).
According to her, the fight against corruption in the civil service has led the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to identify and investigate over 3,600 public servants.
Yemi-Esan also mentioned that the government is tackling the issue of civil servants who have relocated abroad but are still on the payroll, with many voluntarily resigning after physical verifications.
She said the civil servants who are outside the country without official permission and still on the payroll will be sacked after the ongoing verification is completed.
“There are efforts to tackle Nigerians who have relocated abroad doing news jobs, but are still on the payroll of the civil service. The Federal Government is going hard on them, as many of them are voluntarily resigning after the physical verifications,” she said.
According to the Head of Service, most of these workers are not even in core ministries but are mostly in parastatals, stressing that the government was working to eliminate this culture.
The HoCSF expressed her expectation that once the verification report is complete, anyone not in the country will automatically lose their job.
“It is a Nigerian thing. We are running hard against the culture that tolerates it. Outsiders don’t know the bashing we get every day trying to do the right thing. I expect that once the verification report comes anybody that is not in the country automatically losses his job. What we discovered in the last month of that verification is that most of them are now resigning their appointment which is a good development,” Yemi-Esan said.
She also mentioned that she has discussed the matter with the Permanent Secretary Common Service Office, Omachi Omeka, and that the immediate action to be taken based on the report is to stop the salaries of affected workers.
