Oil sector workers reject inclusion in IPPIS wage system

Oil sector workers on Tuesday rejected the move by the federal government to incorporate its workers wage into the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (lPPIS).

This is contained in a letter by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) to the minister of labour and employment.

The letter was jointly signed by Mr. Lumumba Okugbawa, PENGASSAN general secretary and Mr. Olawale Afolabi, NUPENG general secretary respectively, on Tuesday.

It would be recalled that a circular from the office of the accountant general of the federation dated September 7, 2018, directed the enrolment of the oil and gas workers on lPPIS, which the two unions frowned at.

This resulted in series of meetings to proffer ways to address the matter, leading to the setting up of a technical committee by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to assess the unions’ concerns regarding its implementation.

“It is pertinent to state that this committee is yet to meet as we write, unfortunately, we have been inundated again by the threat from the office of the accountant general of the federation, via a circular with reference number OAGF/IPPIS/93/1187, dated August 29, 2019 to stop the salaries of our members, come October 2019.

“We reaffirm that we are not against the government’s policy regarding IPPIS, but we wish refer to the existence of Government Integrated Financial Management information System (GIFMIS) platform which is run by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the unions stated in the letter to the labour minister.

According to the statement, GIFMIS is already serving a similar purpose and the presidential initiative on continuous audit whose responsibility, is to audit the nominal and payroll of agencies as recently emphasised by the minister of finance.

It noted that the unions have therefore, directed its members in affected regulatory agencies not to provide any information concerning personnel payment and allowances to the accountant-general’s office for the purpose of lPPIS, until the technical committee meets.

“We are also putting all the implementing agencies of government on notice that if our salaries are stopped without clarification of the issues raised, we will be left with no other option than to withdraw our services without any further notice,” the unions warned.