Rumble in immigration

OUR REPORTER

Since late December 2019, there has been a persistent grumbling among officers and men of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, over salary and allowance issues.

The issue came to a head with petitions circulated online in which some anonymous officers accused the authority of insensitivity and mystifying of their financial entitlements.

In a recent interview conducted by Saturday Sun with some Immigration officers in Lagos and Abuja, the men who spoke on condition of anonymity expressed their displeasure at what they termed poor welfare and ridiculous emoluments. One of the officers blandly claimed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has no clear-cut welfare packages.

“Most officers of the Service do not enjoy any special allowances. There is no risk allowance or leave allowance or border allowance for border officers,” he complained and also alleged that they suffer from inadequate barracks for officers to stay. “After being transferred from one state to another, most officers are yet to be paid the ‘28 days in lieu of hotel allowances’,” he complained.

The crux of the matter stemmed from their 2020 January salary, which they claimed was mangled due to the inefficiency of the newly adopted Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

“What IPPIS did to Immigration Officers (and some other Departments in Ministry of Interior) in January 2020 was bizarre,” the source avowed.

Promotion without pay rise

The problem according to them is rooted in the supplementary promotion exercise conducted by the Civil Defence Immigration and Correctional Service Board on May 8, 2019. Eligible officers for the examination from all over the federation had converged at the Service Headquarters, Abuja and wrote the exams at the Gwagwalada campus of the University of Abuja. The result was released in two weeks. Those promoted were decorated with their new ranks. But eight months later, they are yet to be placed on the appropriate salary scale of their new rank, the officers alleged.

One of such officers who spoke with Saturday Sun was promoted from Grade Level 9 to Grade Level 10.

“I have been wearing the new rank of Superintendent of Immigration for the past eight months but still receiving the salary of a Deputy Superintendent,” he complained.

The IPPIS ‘overpayment’ error 

With the recently approved new national minimum wage, NIS officers had looked forward to a salary increase. Payment in December at first seemed to confirm a reasonable level of increment. However, an anticlimax followed with a circular from the authority notifying them that they had been paid in error and therefore should expect full deduction from the January salary.

An officer recounted his ordeal: “I am a Superintendent earning N142,000 prior to the payment of the minimum wage. I was paid N202,000 in December, which means an increment of about N63, 000. A few days later, IPPIS disbursed another payment which was the exact amount of the increment on the old salary, an extra N63,000. My thought was that the extra amount was arrear for one month. I was, therefore, expecting further arrears in subsequent months. Surprisingly, the Service issued a circular, stating that the extra amount was paid in error as the full minimum wage arrears had already been paid along with the December salary.”

They said the extra payment was subsequently fully deducted from his January salary paid on February 5, 2020.

Another Superintendent of Immigration also confirmed the situation. His monthly salary of N142,000 shot up to N202,000 in December, followed by an extra payment of N63,000 which was later deducted from his January 2019 salary leaving him with N92,000 after the deduction of the so-called error payment.

What was most galling for the officers was the absurdity of the so-called salary increase after they made their analysis.

An Immigration Assistant 1 Officer at Seme border, Lagos, disclosed that his salary as of November 2019 was N48,000. “But in December I was paid N69, 000 and later an extra N20,000. In January, after the deduction, I was paid N30,000,” he explained. With the new development, my salary is now N50,000. This means a difference of N2,000 from the old salary. So, as an Immigration Assistant 1 officer on Grade Level 5, I had an increment of N2,000 only. Isn’t that absurd?”

What annoyed the officers most was the mode of deduction and the negative impact on their January wages. “Why was the error payment not deducted by instalments since it was not the fault of officers that such gross errors of payment were made?” an irritated officer asked when contacted. “They blew away all my plans for January.”

Continuing, he added: “Since it is possible for IPPIS to remove the money just a month after the error was made, why is it that eight months after promotion and decoration of some officers, IPPIS has foot-dragged in placing the newly promoted Officers on their new salary scale and commence payment of their new salary?”

Raging questions

The aggrieved Immigrations officers who spoke with Saturday Sun also raised other pertinent questions.

“What was the incremental percentage for Officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service, and other Agencies in the Ministry of Interior after the approval of the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments?” one of the officers asked. “We need an explanation as to why the ‘so-called’ increment is so little and insignificant, despite the delicate nature of duties performed by the majority of officers.”

An Immigration officer at Idi Iroko asked three questions: “Why is it that Immigration Officers are not paid leave allowances? Why are Immigration officers not paid their 28 days in lieu of hotel allowance, after being transferred from one State to another? Why didn’t NIS and other parastatals under the Ministry of Interior enjoy the salary review that was activated for the Nigeria Police in 2018?”

Official response

When contacted by Saturday Sun, Nigeria Immigration Service Public Relations Officer James Sunday claimed the authority of the Immigration Service can neither add nor deduct any officer’s salary without recourse to the government platform for payment through the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

“I doubt if any personnel will claim ignorance of the recovery directive for (overpaid) arrears of the minimum wage paid together with the December 2019 salary in which the service (NIS) was notified and all the formations and commands were duly informed in a circular sent from the Headquarters. The payment was recovered fully after alerting the officers of the overpayment,” he said.

For those raising questions about their salary, Sunday advised them to “ask for their payslips for record of overpayment and subsequent deductions through IPPIS platform.”

He further claimed that some have also taken bank loans “which they should reconcile with their bankers and not the service.”

He cautioned further: “If there is any contrary observation by any officer, there are channels of official communication to follow before deciding on self-help through unjustly petitions in the  media .”

He charged disgruntled officers to comply with the laid-down procedure for airing their grievances. “Should they not feel satisfied as officers and men of Uniform service(s) with Standard Operating Procedures and ethics,” he tasked them, “ is to do what is ethical by following the right channels of Communication for addressing grievances.”

In response to the leave allowance question, the Immigration spokesman fired back: “They should apply for payment through appropriate channel and not by petition. We have standard Operation Procedures which is binding on them to avoid erring.”