Ghost police and other ghosts

IN a recent review of the federal payroll system by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),  a monumental sleaze being perpetrated by unscrupulous and criminally minded persons or syndicate came to light. The commission’s report was damning and scandalous even as it virtually made nonsense of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which the government introduced to obviate corruption in the payroll system in the first place. Over 22, 000 suspicious personnel were reportedly found on the Federal Government’s payroll and they were reportedly distributed across Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and tertiary institutions, with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) topping the list of ghost workers!

In addition, some 4,190 former police officers were found on the IPPIS payroll. Specifically, 12, 714 spurious workers were uncovered between January and December 2023 and the financial loss to the system arising from the malpractices that culminated in paying these phony personnel was estimated at close to N35 billion. The reported malpractices were many and of diverse hues, including double salary payments, inclusion of fictitious names on the IPPIS, the use of fake identities to embezzle public funds, the operation of two IPPIS accounts and the presence of ghost workers. A drill down of the commission’s report shows startling and horrible ramifications of financial malfeasance within and across the MDAs which are suggestive of a systemic and deeply entrenched criminal enterprise.

It is really embarrassing and disappointing that the managers of the payroll system of a country that obviously has financial challenges could not monitor and protect the little financial resources available from defalcation. This embarrassing and sordid state of affairs necessary raises some posers. How and why should ghost workers be harboured in a supposedly disciplined service and a leading law enforcement agency like the police, and in the other MDAs, too, without their internal control systems discovering and reporting the anomalies? Is it rocket science to have a credible system of payment? Why are people allowed to perpetrate these crimes and cause a tottering economy to suffer avoidable haemorrhage?

How did names of the fake personnel get into the register, avoiding every layer of scrutiny? Is there a syndicate in charge of the sleaze?  And is it not strange that the much-vaunted IPPIS  put in place by the government ostensibly to put pay to corruption and ghost workers in the system has been easily compromised? Put more pointedly, is it not disturbing that the IPPIS which the government put forward to handle the payment of all federal workers’ salaries and other emoluments to the exclusion of any other system was said to have been subjected to tampering, manipulation and alleged padding with ghost workers? Are there not people who are supposed to be in charge of the workings of the IPPIS at various levels?  Yet, when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) registered its opposition to its members being captured on the IPPIS on the ground that the system does not capture the unique essence of running universities, the officials in charge carried on as if the system was fool-proof even as they impliedly accused ASUU of surreptitiously promoting corruption. Imagine the billions of naira being lost to payments of these ghost and spurious workers monthly and yearly under the IPPIS!

Of course, we know that computers do not operate themselves; it is garbage in, garbage out and that is why a strong system of checks and monitoring ought to have been instituted. It is an intentionally designed system of constant checks and mandated transparent and open operations that can help to stave off the propensity towards corruption at all levels, especially in a clime where the average person is reputed to be low on morals and integrity. If a necessary but obviously not fulsome check on the management of the IPPIS could reveal this magnitude of rot in the system, it shows that the strategy being adopted in the anti-graft war is suboptimal and needs tweaking. For instance, the main focus has always been on the political office-holders whose corrupt activities are reviewed after the damage had been done, leaving out from intense scrutiny, the civil servants whose insidious activities are vitiating the fight against corruption in a systemic and tremendous fashion.  Again, much more energy should be channelled towards preventing corruption, or at least making it very difficult for anyone to short-change the system without being promptly caught. For instance, an appropriate technology could also be deployed to forestall corruption, rather than merely focusing on investigations and punitive actions after the deed had been done.

Indeed, with the disturbing outcomes of the ICPC investigations on the running of the IPPIS across the MDAs, it has become imperative that the government institute a more robust system of monitoring the operations of the payroll system in order to prevent embarrassing and treacherous activities of criminals, as in the instant case. Yes, there can be no substitute for honesty and integrity in the handling of official assignments or in any financial transaction for that matter, but where these virtues are not a given, more intense checks, monitoring and evaluation certainly become very critical. We believe that the reports of the ICPC are damning enough to elicit a prompt response from the political leadership at the highest level. It is good to know that the leadership commissioned the inquiry in the first place, but it is even more important that it uses the report of the investigation to sanitize the system and rid the civil and public service of bad eggs. For starters, we expect individuals under whose authorities and supervision these heinous crimes were committed against the state to be identified, apprehended and punished. And to be sure, it is expected that such sanction will transcend administrative, disciplinary measures to include litigation as well as recovery and forfeiture of the proceeds of crime to the State. If wayward, criminal and aberrant government officials are promptly made to pay dearly for betrayal of trust through dismissal, imprisonment and loss of all assets accumulated illegally, their ilk and others who may be thinking of treading the same path of perfidy will be deterred.

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