Welcome the ghostbusters: New payroll system reveals N14billion paid to ghost workers

by Lekan Olanrewaju

In a bit of an ironic twist – it has been revealed that the government, which recently faced criticism for failing to pay allowances to members of the NYSC has been paying salaries to over 35,000 ghost workers.

This was disclosed on Wednesday by the Coordinating Minister for the economy and Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Minister of state for Finance, Dr. Yerima Lawal Ngama during an oversight visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance to the ministry in Abuja.

According to Ngama, the new payroll software, Integrated Personnel & Payroll Information System (IPPIS) helped discover that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) had been submitting payroll vouchers in excess of the amount of salaries they paid, leaving the surpluses in their accounts. The total amount uncovered till date was put around N14 billion.

“We introduced the IPPIS computer software for capturing all the data of staff of MDAs.” he said. ”

“We have today covered 183 MDAs and discovered 35,000 ghost workers. We have saved government N14 billion.”

He also promised that more savings would be made by the new system, adding: “by the time we finish, all other government agencies, including the military, police, among others, the savings will be much more.”

The IPPIS was introduced by the Federal Government in 2006 and conceptualised as a central payment process for all public servants whose emolument is drawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

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