All former civil servants still drawing salaries from the federal government after relocating abroad in the name of japa will be made to refund the money.
This follows a directive by President Bola Tinubu in 2024 that the culprits’ supervisors and department heads be punished as well for aiding and abetting the fraud while they were in charge.
For this reason, the office of the accountant general has since released a memo to verify and to weed out ghost workers amidst strong resistance.
The office has eventually fixed February 17, 2025, for all federal civil servants to conclude their verification exercise.
As of November 2024, the head of the federal civil service, Didi Watson-Jack told newsmen that some civil servants who have travelled out are still receiving salaries despite ongoing investigation, blaming some supervisors for covering up for them.
Weeks after, a directive was issued by President Tinubu to remove all workers who have relocated abroad from government payroll.
Today, federal civil servants have been given a February 17 deadline for identity verification as the government moves to fully comply with the presidential directive to weed out ghost workers.
A memo by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation seen by AIT News on Friday, says civil servants are expected to verify their identities on the portal of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, amid the planned stoppage of salaries of ghost workers and other sanctions.
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According to the memo from the accountant general’s office, part of the requirements for verification is the tax identification number, TIN, the IPPIS number, and salary account number.
The memo, which was initially dated June 27, 2024, was subsequently extended to August 16 2024, and again for an additional one week, from February 10 to 17, 2025.
The Secretary General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Joshua Opebo told AIT on Monday that civil servants have been in a haste to generate their Taxpayers Identification Numbers to meet the deadline and a little more time will be required, even though the association had warned workers relocating abroad on implications of not fully resigning.
He said it would be better to resign than to be sacked or dragged to court for a refund of public funds.
(Editor: Okechukwu Eze)
