Government Policies and Performance of the Public Sector: A Critical Appraisal of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) Policy

Abstract

There have been some fraudulent practices in the Nigerian Public Sector. These practices are manifested in ghost workers, payroll fraud and inconsistencies in the payment of salaries to federal civil servants. Noticeably, this ugly trend has thrown many Nigerians into joblessness, hardship and frustrations. This is because, federal government ends up paying heavily on individuals that are not part of the Nigerian workforce, the wage bill paid is often more than the actual workforce. Opportunities that would have been created for the teaming unemployed youths are suffocated by the corrupt payroll managers by inflating wage bills. More so, many of these payroll managers deliberately deny workers their monthly pay on excuse of technical hitches. Therefore, Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is identified as a mechanism to eliminate ghost workers, reduce wage bills and ensures regular payment of salaries. Institutional theory by Powell and Dimaggion in 1991 is used to anchor the paper. It was concluded that IPPIS has made some achievements in reducing the scourge of ghost workers, wage bills and irregular payment of salaries. It was recommended that government should strengthen the policy by addressing the issues that are hinderances to its full implementation and success.

Keywords: Public Financial Management, Payroll Fraud, Ghost Workers, Government wage bill, Payment of Salary