BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
Any Ministry, Department and Agency of government that has not been captured under the Integrated Personal Payroll Information Systems will be denied access to it’s personnel budget for the 2022 fiscal period.
The development is confirmed in the 2022 Budget Call Circular issued by the Minister of Finance, Bugdet and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed and obtained by The Point.
The implication of an agency not getting access to it’s personnel budget is that government officials that are working there would be denied access to their salaries and other emoluments.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last year directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed to ensure that all employees of the Federal Government are enrolled on the IPPIS platform.
The IPPIS scheme which started in April 2007, is one of the Federal Government’s reform initiative designed to achieve a centralized payroll system of the Federal Government.
It facilitates easy storage and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pensions processing to aid manpower planning and budgeting as well as to comply with global best practice.
Through the implementation of the IPPIS, over N273.8bn had been saved by the Federal Government.
With over 700 MDAs currently enrolled on the IPPIS platform, analysts have said the impact of the initiative would have been reflective in the budget through a decrease in the amount that is being spent on the wage bill of government.
Despite the IPPIS implementation, analysis by The Point showed that over the years, personnel and pension costs account for the largest single item of expenditure in the Federal Government budget rising steadily in recent times from N1.88trn in 2016 to N2.06trn in 2017 and N2.56trn in 2019.
In the 2017 Federal Government budget, personnel costs accounted for about 77 per cent of total revenues as against 64 per cent in 2016.
In the 2019 budget, personnel costs amounted to 63 per cent of total revenues of goverment.
Similarly, personnel emoluments accounted for about 37 per cent of total Federal Government expenditure between 2015 and 2017 and 31 per cent in 2019.
To realise the goal of controlling personnel costs, the Federal Government said it was introducing measures such as a temporary freeze on non-critical recruitment outside of the Security and Healthcare sectors.
To further improve fiscal transparency, the government according to the Budget Call Circular said it remains committed to improving the efficiency and quality of its spending.
While admitting that the high wage bill poses a major challenge to government finance, the Minister stated that the personnel cost estimates will be based on information earlier obtained from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and/ or submitted by the MDAs.
The circular stated, “Each MDA will be advised accordingly of its personnel cost budget for 2022.
“In respect of new recruitments, all MDAs must ensure compliance with Service-wide Circular ref. No 59814/S.7/C.8/IV/T7/140 on ‘Streamlining Procedures for Recruitment into Federal Agencies’ dated 11th August, 2021 issued by the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) in respect of the procedure for recruitment into the public service.
“The Chief Executive/Accounting Officer will be held responsible for accuracy of the submissions in response to the Personnel Budget Call Circular (ref. BD/2000/EXP/S.651/) issued to all MDAs by the Hon. Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning in May 2021.
“It is expected that all MDAs have now complied with Presidential directive to enroll on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS). MDAs not yet on IPPIS WILL not be provided for in the personnel budget for 2022.”
The wage bill of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Goverment has been projected to hit N4.22trn in the 2022 fiscal period.
The N4.22trn being projected for payment of salaries to Federal Government workers is contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper for 2022-2024.
The N4.22trn represents an increase of N480bn when compared to the N3.74trn which was approved for this year in the 2021
Budget.
