FG Tightens Payroll Entry for New Workers
By Patience Ikpeme
The Federal Government has shut the door on the automatic addition of new employees to its payroll. From now on, no newly recruited worker will be paid from federal funds unless the person has first been listed on the official staff register of their ministry, department or agency, and has passed every check required by law and regulation.
The new rule was announced on Monday by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) in a statement signed by its Director of Press and Public Relations, Bawa Mokwa. The Office said it had begun re-engineering payroll processes under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) “to enhance accountability, transparency and efficiency in the management of personnel records and the Federal Government payroll.”
According to the statement, “no newly recruited employee shall be enrolled without first being captured on the nominal roll of the relevant MDA and satisfying all prescribed validation and eligibility requirements.” The nominal roll is the official list of staff working in a government office. The directive takes immediate effect and applies to all ongoing and future payroll admission processes for newly recruited federal employees.
The Office also warned that officers who handle these admissions will answer for any wrongdoing. “Officers responsible for processing and approving payroll admissions will be held accountable for any breach of the applicable rules and regulations,” the statement said. It added that any employee record with incomplete documents or unresolved problems “will be deferred from payroll admission until all prescribed conditions are fulfilled.” In plain terms, a new worker whose papers are not in order will not be paid until the gaps are filled.
The Office has ordered all Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Agencies and other relevant officers to comply strictly with the new requirements. It explained that ministries, departments and agencies, as owners of their budgets, must now take “greater responsibility for the management and accounting of their personnel budgets and nominal rolls.”
Under the new process, each agency must send a formal request for payroll admission to the OAGF. The request must come with the recruitment approval, appointment letters, any waivers granted and other supporting documents. The OAGF will check these papers together with each employee’s records, salary structure, grade level, step, allowances and other financial entitlements.
The checks will also reach the worker’s pension and tax details. The Office said the validation process will cover Pension Fund Administrator information, pension identification numbers, National Housing Fund registration and tax records, “to ensure accurate deductions and timely remittances.” This means a worker’s pension, housing fund and tax contributions are meant to be correct and paid on time from the first salary.
Approval will pass through several hands. After the OAGF completes its first check, the employee’s records will go back to the relevant agency for confirmation and endorsement by four officers: the Accounting Officer, the Director of Human Resources, the Director of Finance and Accounts, and a designated Payroll Validating Officer. The records will then return to the OAGF for final processing.
Even then, entry into the payroll is not automatic. The statement said final admission “will be subject to satisfactory completion of all validation procedures and the approval of the Accountant-General of the Federation.”
The new arrangement is expected to make it harder for unapproved or poorly documented names to enter the federal payroll, and to make it easier to trace who approved each addition if questions arise later.
