Federal Govt deploys BVN to track ghost workers –Adeosun

Federal Govt deploys BVN to track ghost workers –Adeosun

Federal Government yesterday said it had successfully completed a pilot programme which uses Bank Verification Number, BVN, details to check for ghost workers and identify duplicate and other irregular entries on the payroll.

A statement issued by the Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Finance, Marshall Gundu, indicated that the pilot project was initiated as a solution to the slow pace of progress being encountered in the enrollment of employees on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS

The statement stated that the strategy of using BVN rather than requiring the physical presence of each member of staff had significantly simplified and accelerated the progress of the project and at a lower cost than previously incurred.

"The use of BVN rather than requiring physical presentation as a first line check on the integrity of our payroll is a cost effective and efficient measure.

"This will accelerate the pace of enrollment on IPPIS as well as identify anomalies which can be flagged for further investigation and review," Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to the minister, since it was started five years ago, only 20 per cent of public employees had actually been enrolled onto IPPIS to date, due to various reasons.

Adeosun restated the commitment of the ministry to scrutinising the largest single expense item, adding that personnel related costs account for over 40 per cent of government expenditure and must be prudently managed to ensure the validity of every payment.

She explained further that government was determined to ensure that everyone who collects a salary from the federal purse is on the IPPIS system.

While commending the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Plc (NIBBS) for their co-operation in the exercise, the minister noted that under BVN more than 30 million biometric and personal data records had been captured.

"The BVN provides a pool of reliable data against which records held on the Federal Government's payroll will be cross checked to identify inconsistencies, including duplicate payments, payments to dormant accounts, multiple payments to a single account holder, non-matching of data provided, among others.

"Genuine staff have nothing to be concerned about but those who are collecting multiple salaries and those engaged in any type of payroll fraud are guaranteed to be caught out," the minister assured.

As part of the ministry's initiatives to enhance prudence in public finance at the federal level, Adeosun disclosed that her ministry also has in-built controls to counteract those seeking to transfer their salary receiving accounts to micro-finance, mortgage bank and other non BVN accounts in order to evade detection.

"Since the advent of BVN we have seen a trend of such requests for transfer from commercial bank accounts to non-BVN accounts.

"Accordingly, we plan to undertake a detailed review of all persons who have requested such transfers in the last 12 months," she said.

Similarly, she explained that the ministry was also working closely with NIBBS to finalise plans to roll out BVN to capture non-BVN bank institutions with a significant number of Federal Government salary accounts.

This is even as she explained that in line with the commitment made by President Muhammadu Buhari in his budget speech, the ministry had set up a "Continuous Audit" team with the sole function of undertaking detailed, programmed audits on payroll.

The team, whose responsibility is to undertake programmed risk-based audits of the payroll to strengthen the controls framework, is to be based in the office of the minister and is to be headed by one of the most senior accountants in the office of the Accountant General, Mr. M. Diqua, who was hitherto Director Funds.

The minister also pointed out that based on preliminary work undertaken so far, government anticipated that billions of naira would be saved as a result of the various initiatives.
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