By Racheal Ishaya
Abuja – The Federal Government has been called upon to adhere to its promise to pay workers regularly on the 25th of every month.
A public servant, who spoke incognito, made the call during interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja on Tuesday.
The worker said adhering to such payment date would enable workers to plan better and reduce hardship.
The worker added that the date could be 25th, 30th or even 5th of the following month but should be strictly adhered to.
But a source in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, said government cannot adhere strictly due to economic challenges.
The source said early payment of salaries was subject to availability of funds, human delay or mechanical glitch each month.
“When the Federal Government made the promise to pay on 25th of every month, it had every intention of keeping to it but the economic realities are making it near impossible.
“The IPPIS office is not solely in charge of payment of salaries. There are many other agencies that take part to complete the process.
“Aside IPPIS office, there is the Department of Funds in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Budget Office of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“So, any unexpected set back or malfunction in the line of payment from any of these agencies, which could be from budget office or CBN, can delay payments.
“But I can tell you that we have prepared the payroll at IPPIS since Jan.13, and commenced the procedure for payment of the January salaries.
“That it has not been paid is from other ends, not from us. At the IPPIS office, we have completed the process”, the source said.
The source said, “IPPIS desk officers stationed in MDAs prepare the payroll and submit to the IPPIS office to check for errors before it is submitted to the budget office.
“The budget office is also supposed to check the total amount for each MDA to make sure that it does not over shoot what was initially budgeted for each ministry.’’
The source said that the budget office and the Ministry of Finance worked together because whatever the budget office decided must have the backing of the ministry of finance.
“Afterwards, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s online platform is used for payment because they have links with all the commercial and microfinance banks that the staff salaries are going into.’’
NAN recalls that the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, revealed recently that N330 billion was needed to pay salaries and that the federal government did not generate enough revenue to meet its monthly obligations.
Adeosun said government spent N210 billion on personnel and N120 billion on debt servicing monthly before any talk of capital projects.
At the last Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting held on Jan. 20, N400 billion was shared by the three tiers of government. The federal government got N105.76 billion.