Director in Charge of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) Emma James Deko has told the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating non remittance of deduction from workers salaries for the National Housing Fund, that the agency is not responsible for paying of workers’ salaries.
Speaking at the reaumed hearing of the committee on Tuesday, Deko said that in most cases, deductions from workers are not remitted because of shortage of cash backing for approvals for wages, adding that sometimes, they get directices to oniy the net of the workers salaries, while the gross is kept in view because of shortage of funds.
According to him, while IPPIS prepares the salaries for only Federal workers, the government appointed four gateways that are responsible for the payment of the salaries to workers.
He gave the names of the gateways which he said are not situated within the IPPIS as Nigeria Interbank Payment System (NIPS), E-Transact, Remita and GIFMIS.
He said “So, like I said, IPPIS is not in charge of every employee of the federal government. IPPIS is only covering the executive arm. So, what I am trying to say is that, IPPIS is not in charge of every employee of government.
“Having said that, let me go back to the requirements from IPPIS. The first one is evidence of remittance by all stakeholders and unremitted so far by the MDAs. The last part of it, the names of beneficiaries, I don’t think IPPIS can provide that because we don’t give to beneficiaries.
“We cannot talk about evidence of remittance without deductions, because it is only when you deduct that you can remit. I must be sincere that, we have been trying to collate this information because it relates as far back as 2011 to date, based on the request of this Honourable committee. We have been on it, but we have one constraint and that constraint is the fact that after deductions, we remit and the we are to pay salaries.
“There are instances where the cash backing may not cover the entire salary wage bill for a particular month., and in that instance, we are advised, we are directed to pay only the net, which means that, all deductions will be stepped down.”
However, the committee summoned the Accountant General of the Federation to appear before the committee on Thursday to explain the delays in remitting deductions from workers salaries to the Federal Mortgage Bank. The Central Bank of Nigeria is also to appear on Thursday.
