The House of Representatives has set up an inquiry into allegations that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was riddled with fraud and irregularities.
This according to the house has led to the none payment of salaries and allowances of Federal Civil Servants.
The Chairman of Public Account Committee (PAC), Rep. Wole Oke (PDP-Osun), said this on Tuesday in Abuja while drilling the Rector of Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, Dr. Zubair Mustapha.
The drilling was on the expenditure and financial audit reports of the tertiary institution, for the years 2018 and 2019.
The Committee was alarmed that leakages and sharp practices were observed in the course of their earlier engagement, with other agencies, particularly, the J.S. Tarkar University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State.
The Rector of the school told the Committee that pending salaries for the years under review, were due to anomalies in the IPPIS, a salary payment system.
According to him, “The backlog of salaries is from people who were not captured by IPPIS,”.
Reacting to the development, Oke said that why the committee must look into IPPIS.
“We were told here that the salaries of personnel of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State went into accounts of staff of Jigawa State.
“IPPIS must be investigated, to detect some of the irregularities observed in the system we have observed some serious irregularities in the system”.
The Committee then resolved to write the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmad and the Accountant General of the Federation, to explain the alleged sleaze in the federal staff payment system.
Rep. Ibrahim Abdullahi (APC-Jigawa) raised a motion for the inquest on IPPIS.
Meanwhile, the committee also summoned the External Auditors of the accounts of Auchi Polytechnic, over discrepancies in the audited reports of the school, for 2018-2019.
The committee also rejected “audited” accounts for 2018-2019, from the Federal Polytechnic, Illaro, as presented by its Rector, Dr. Olusegun Aluko.
The Rector of the school who claimed that the institution, generated only N1.91 billion in 2019, however failed to give a detailed and breakdown of the expenditure of the money and audits of the accounts.
Representatives of the Office of the Auditor of the Federation, Mr. Anthony Ayine at the investigative session, also rejected his presentation before the Committee. The committee however placed the Institution on status of inquiry in order to determine it’s financial status.
