The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has directed over 17,000 of its member delisted from the federal government payroll under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to remain calm.
It would be recalled that apprehension was building up, when news filtered in that over 17,000 government employees were said to have been delisted from the IPPIS for failing to comply with a verification exercises spanning over five years.
Reacting to the development on Tuesday, National President of the ASCSN, Comrade Tommy Etim Okon, said there were some discrepancies in the IPPIS verification process, adding that names of Personal Assistants (PAs), Special Advisers (SAs) and in some cases ministers who had served in successive governments were found in the portal.
Comrade Okon, while addressing a press conference, in Abuja, also criticised his members, wondering why most genuine civil servants feigned ignorance of the verification exercise, while it lasted.
He noted that the office of the Head of Service of the Federation has given a one week grace period for affected employees who were erroneously omitted from the IPPIS portal to forward their documents for update, provided they had genuine cases.
“We called your attention to what we heard or information at our disposal just few days ago, we received an information that over 17,000 workers in the core civil service did not carry out the online verification which was done by the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
“Quickly we swung into action to interface with the government through the HoSF and by that singular act, there was need for us to talk to our members and that informed the reasons, because we have seen a lot of apprehensions from our members, receiving several phone calls, then we also looked at the timing because of the social economic challenges.” (Blueprint)
