The Federal Government through the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has signed a World Bank sponsored $4.9 million contract with the SystemSpecs Consortium for the provision of an Integrated Personnel & Payroll Information System (IPPIS). The aim of this project is to provide a database of accurate records of Federal civil servants in order to eliminate ghost workers.

The Chairman of BPSR & Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, at the contract signing ceremony said; The Federal Government is very excited about this development because it expects to make huge savings when the exercise is completed.

Furthermore, he said The goal of IPPIS, is to procure and implement a solution that will improve effectiveness and efficiency in government transactions, enhance confidence in payroll costs and budgeting, and also greatly improve management reporting and information.

For data quality, he said that the system would ensure that data gathered and migrated to the new system is accurate and valid.

The Minister also informed the audience that it was a competitive bid, which involved 13 local and foreign firms, and he was happy that a Nigerian firm won it.

He further expressed his confidence in the ability of the SystemSpecs Consortium to professionally deliver the project on schedule.

At the FCT, the Minister informed the audience that, when he assumed duty the FCT were losing about N1 billion annually due to ghost workers in the FCT's nominal payroll. The ghost workers were detected after a staff audit was carried out, which showed that, of the 26,017 workers in the FCT payroll 6,000 were fictitious.

Responding on behalf of the Consortium, Mr. John Obaro, Managing Director SystemSpecs, assured the Minister of the determination of the group to meet the expectations of the Federal Government and World Bank by delivering the project on schedule by end of February 2007.

"We shall make Nigeria proud. We will not abuse this privilege. Except the public service staff records are computerized, the fight against ghost workers will achieve limited result." Obaro said.

The 1st Phase of the IPPIS project will involve 5 federal ministries and an agency, and they are; the federal ministries of Finance, Works, Education, Information, Foreign Affairs and the National Planning Commission.

The SystemSpecs Consortium is made up of: Impact, Interglobal, Telnet and SystemSpecs.

Signed:

Moses Braimah,

Senior Manager, Corp. Services