Abuja, Aug 29, 2023: Mr Emma Deko, the Director in Charge of Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) says shortage of cash-backing is responsible for non-remittance of workers contribution to National Housing Fund (NHF).
Deko said this at the resume hearing of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating non-remittance of deduction from workers salaries for NHF in Abuja on Tuesday.
He also said sometimes, IPPIS often get directives to remit the net of workers salaries, while the gross was kept in view because of shortage of funds.
The Director further said that IPPIS was not responsible for the payment of salaries of workers, adding that it only processed payment.
He said in most cases, deductions from workers were not remitted because of shortage of cashbacking for approvals for wages.
According to him, while IPPIS prepare 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 were not situated within the IPPIS to include: Nigeria Interbank Payment System (NIPS), E-Transact, Remita and Government Integrated Finance Management Information System (GIFMIS).
“IPPIS is not in charge of every employee of the federal government. IPPIS is only covering the executive arm. So, 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 Ministries, Department and Agencies (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,” he said.
He said the IPPIS had been on it, but was constrained and that constraint was the fact that after deductions, it remitted and yet to pay salaries.
He said, there are instances where the cash backing may not cover the entire salary wage bill for a particular month
He said in that instance, ” we are directed to pay only the net, which means that all deductions will be stepped down.”
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep Dachung Bagos however summoned the Accountant General of the Federation to appear before the committee in Aug. 31.
This is to explain the delays in remitting deductions from workers salaries to the Federal Mortgage Bank, while the Central Bank of Nigeria is also to appear before the committee on same date.
