The phase II of the Federal Government Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS) project has uncovered ghost workers in  ministries, departments and agencies, it was learnt yesterday.

 In one ministry,  of about 500 staff, 350 were discovered to be ghost workers. In another, 11,000 workers of the 14,000 on the ministry’s payroll were discovered to be real. 

A source close to the firm handling the project said: “The IPPIS project was initiated by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to stem the tide of inflated public service nominal roll which has led to increasing demand for budgetary allocation for personnel cost yearly. 

“The project actually commenced in 2006 with the pilot scheme implemented by a Nigerian IT company, Systemspec. The pilot scheme captured some 55,000 workers in its database as at April 2007, when the pilot phase was concluded. This figure was later made to pass through the more credible exercise of the phase II service provider.”

The source added:  “When bidding was opened for the second phase in 2008, the inadequacies of the pilot scheme was addressed, as another Nigerian IT company, SoftAlliance was chosen in December 2010 after a rigorous selection process, beating others-Systemspec and SAP.  SoftAlliance commenced work on the project in May 2011, and went live in September of the same year; armed with its oracle software, SoftAlliance has been able to capture over 47,000 workers in 58 MDAS so far covered, it has also moved the 55,000 earlier captured in the pilot scheme into the more reliable oracle application-driven databank, thereby addressing effectively, both issues of the payroll processing and human capital management function.” 

The Nation was told that “Federal Permanent Secretaries  at their recent retreat in Calabar, lauded the IPPIS project, emphasising that it will be of immense benefit to both the government and the public servants. They said money saved from the exercise could be channeled to other processing areas of their needs. They urged the Federal Government to ensure its conclusion and sustainability by providing necessary funds and training for the civil servants who will run the installed system after its eventual completion.”

It was learnt that the Federal Government is keeping the discovery secret to allow the exercise to be completed before making it public.