Oil workers wield strike against FG’s payroll reform plan

Four years after President Muhammadu Buhari directed that all government workers be paid under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform, a payroll system designed to check abuse and the ghost worker syndrome by matching workers with their biometric details, oil workers continue to wield strike over the government to buy an exemption.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, unwilling to be held responsible for strikes, has backtracked on each occasion thereby allowing the benefits of a transparent payroll system to elude the most critical sector of the economy.

With the exception of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), all other government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have fully complied or are in the process of complying with IPPIS.

Last year, Ahmed Idris, Nigeria’s accountant-general, said that the salaries of over 685,000 government workers in 480 MDAs have been moved to the IPPIS.

In a communiqué issued by the executive members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), a union of white-collar oil and gas workers, the group said it “frowns at frequent threats by the office of the Accountant-General to stop salaries and allowances of staff of NNRA, PTI, PPPRA, DPR, over their inclusion on the IPPIS platform”.
“NEC-in-Session resolves to resist any attempt to stop salaries to members under any guise by the Consultant to IPPIS,” PENGASSAN said in the communiqué published January 24.

The union is rather demanding an explanation on why the Accountant-General cannot use the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), a platform that manages budget, which it claims “has been adjudged reliable and efficient”.

But this is not really a fight about using the most efficient platform to remit salaries and allowances. Under the IPPIS platform, the Accountant-General pays salaries and wages directly to government employees’ bank accounts after deducting taxes, health insurance fees, and contributions to pension funds and cooperative societies using biometrics data submitted by workers and verified by government consultants.

GIFMIS is a computer application that manages budgets preparation and execution; records purchase orders and general expenses. Under this system, the computer application captures the total expenditure including payroll which is administered differently from IPPIS.

“These agencies clamouring for exemptions mostly fund part of their budgets and seek to maintain autonomy over their income,” said a source from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
BusinessDay gathered that because these agencies are not on IPPIS platform, they are not remunerated the same way as other civil servants. The DPR, for example, gets significant funding from payment of signature bonus and they are allowed to fund their expenses as budgetary allocations fail to cover overhead costs. It does not release them from the obligation of transparency and accountability according to public sector rules.

Olabode Johnson, president of PENGASSAN, did not respond to questions asking for clarification on why the group opposes enrolment under IPPIS.

With the power to grind the economy to a halt through strikes, oil workers have been able to keep the Accountant-General off their backs. Yet, explanations over why they merit an exemption have been vague, with arguments that the introduction of the IPPIS would compromise effectiveness and efficiency in the system. Just how it will do this, the group has not said.

The introduction of IPPIS platform has benefitted the country. Kemi Adeosun, the former minister of Finance, said in March 2018 that the Federal Government saved N288bn in personnel costs through the implementation of the programme in the past 10 years.
When the FG directed oil workers to join the scheme in 2014, PENGASSAN sent protest letters to the Office of the Accountant-General citing non-consideration of the peculiar situation in the petroleum industry. The Accountant-General responded by threatening to withhold salaries of the oil workers.

The union then threatened to shut down all oil and gas installations in the country and the government backed off. Four years later, these threats are being renewed as the Accountant-General is still issuing the same letter threatening to withhold their salaries.

 

ISAAC ANYAOGU