Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System

About IPPIS –by Oni Osagie

In 2006, the Federal Government decided to have a centralised database of all its employees, and the idea led to the establishment of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The previous incumbent processes in place constrained availability, reliability, and timeliness of essential management information necessary to attain desired performance and productivity goals that the public service provided to the Nigerian public.

Diagnostic work was undertaken, and the key recommendation identified by the federal government was the quick deployment of an integrated personnel and payroll information system (IPPIS).

To fully adopt the scheme as directed by the Federal Government,

In January, 2014, the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja joined other MDAs  in enrolment into the IPPIS Scheme.

A critical component of the IPPIS, is the ability to manage services of the establishment and payroll, within the context of public service productivity and constraints of government revenues, priorities, and budget.

The purpose of the IPPIS project was to ensure that the records of all employees of government are brought under a central database, to procure, implement and integrate solution that would improve the effectiveness and efficiency in transactional services, enhance the confidence in payroll costs and budgeting and to greatly improve management reporting and information.

The IPPIS move in the Hospital is not only to create a credible database for the workers, but also to automate personnel planning for the Federal Government. However, it will make the process of payment of salaries simpler and the centre will be able to catch up with the rest of the world technologically.

                                                                                                   

Although, the IPPIS system had its teething problems when it was newly adopted by the Hospital. Just like any other project, when the IPPIS was adopted by the centre, several  workers grumbled about salary payment hitches that were attributable to the implementation of the IPPIS, some staff salaries were withheld because They did not have a bank account number that compliant with the Nigerian Uniform Bank Account Number (NUBAN), the IPPIS was designed to electronically make payments to workers’ bank accounts via the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System, however, only NUBAN account numbers were recognised by the system, while some staff were underpaid and some others were not found on the IPPIS payroll. Some were also having problems such as salary delays, wrong grade level placements and so on. Some had to take a loan to enable them survive.   

These complaints and many others did not stay long as FMC, Lokoja, through its dynamic management coined out paths to quickly address these problems.

Moreso, Inorder to achieve the ultimate end of the IPPIS Scheme, and to ensure good attitude of staff towards their work and Patients, the present management also ensured that every staff were enrolled into the Bio-metric Data Capturing, and those requested to do a  repeat of the Bio-Metric Data capturing due to some technical  problems, were given the opportunity to do so by taking them to Abuja for recapturing.

On the 2^nd of April 2014, the Hospital’s management  sponsored The IPPIS role players in the Centre to attend a stakeholders’ meeting that was organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to enable them highlight and discuss the salient problems of salary payment that are encountered in the hospital as a result of the implementation of the IPPIS scheme.

Another area of achievement recorded in the IPPIS Scheme is the Pre-Access/Responsibility Training programme that was attended by the Hospital’s IPPIS Role Players at the Office of The Accountant-General of The Federation, Abuja.

Today, the training of IPPIS Role Players towards performance improvement has yielded positive results in the Centre. The Training has helped IPPIS Role Players in the centre, to have IPPIS Access Right and application that enables them to input Payroll Information and other issues associated with Discipline, Exit, Termination, Cooperative matters, Pension Details, Promotion, Union Matters, Grade Level and Step, Bank Details and update through IPPIS On-line application that was acquired during the training, without necessarily travelling to Abuja for such corrections to be made.

So far, the hospital management has succeeded in ensuring that all Permanent Staff of the Hospital are on the IPPIS payroll without leaving anyone behind.

Indeed, it is a great deal to have all these achievements made within three months, as some other MDAs who have been on IPPIS for a longer time, are still battling with most of the Salary hitches we have overcome.

We congratulate the Hospital management, for their unrepented effort in making the IPPIS system work speedily and efficiently.