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Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has inaugurated a Presidential Technical Committee to review some payment platforms in the public sector including the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (GIFMIS) and the Single Treasury Account (TSA).
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The committee will be chaired by the Minister of the Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami while Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kachifu Inuwa Abdullahi, will serve as its secretary.
According to Prof. Pantami, the technical committee has been mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari to review the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of these payment tools while also advising the president on how best to improve them.
Other members of the committee are Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Folashade Yemi-Esan, Auditor General of the Federation, Aghughu Adolphus, Chairman, Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Dasuki Arabi, Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Prof. Muhammad Abubakar, and Chairman, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Ekpo Nta Esq.
Pantami, while giving an overview of the IPPIS, GIFMIS and the TSA deployed in 2006, 2012 and 2015 respectively, have not fully complied with the provisions of the NITDA Act 2007.
His words: “At the time they were deployed, the provisions of NITDA, Act 2007, section A, of setting the standardisation of ICT deployment in Federal Public Institutions were not followed. Because of this, these three systems were not subjected to government certification and IT project clearance as required by law and many other government policies”.
Despite this shortcoming, the platforms have made considerable achievements, the minister said.
IPPIS has saved government over N120 billion and the TSA has brought a saving in excess of N10 trillion naira since their deployments, he added.
His words: “These figures show us that the government has recorded some major gains with their deployment but there is need to improve on them. Particularly with the recent allegations coming up that these systems are being exploited by evil people where they siphon money”, he stated.
Part of the committee’s task is help beef up the quality of service of the platforms even as the minister noted that errors have been detected in IPPIS when reviewed by NITDA. All three systems including GIFMIS and the TSA will be critically reviewed to eliminate leakages, errors and other challenges in their processes.
Government functionaries at the inauguration included the Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi, Board Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Adeolu Akande, Board Chairman of the Nigerian Postal Service, Barrister Maimuna Yaya Abubakar, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, and the National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau, Dr. Vincent Olatunji.
