The Federal government has re-assured teachers employed into Federal Government Colleges in 2018 that are yet to receive their salaries, that they will be migrated into the Integrated Personal and Payroll Information System IPPIS.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, gave the assurance in Abuja, while responding to questions on the non-payment of salaries of teachers recruited into the scheme by the Federal Ministry of Education.
Echono who confirmed that there were irregularities in the employment exercise of some of the teachers, emphasised the challenges this posed to the Ministry as well as the Head of Service and the Civil Service Commission.
According to him, “It’s a very unfortunate incident that keeps us awake because it is a comedy of errors but the reality is that there was a cause for it; this thing started with the cases of irregular employment.
“This was discovered but many of the teachers recruited were legitimate officers; they were properly employed and documented but unfortunately there was a huge spike in the recruitment exercise and when this was noticed an embargo was placed.
“This coincided with when the newly employed teachers were ready to be migrated to IPPIS and it took a very long time to resolve all the issues surrounding the matter”.
Echono added that the joint efforts between the Head of Service, Civil Service Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education made it possible to find out the irregular exercise in the recruitment, hence the embargo had been lifted.
“But the security network operating within the ministry, civil service commission, head of service and all the people involved decided to beam the activities to resolve the problems,” he said.
He said that embargo has since been lifted on their employment and many of the teachers have been invited for biometrics and would soon be migrated for onward payment of salaries.
“Many of them have been invited and the assurances I have is that by the end of October they will be migrated”, he added.
According to one of the affected teachers who pleaded anonymity, said that two of the concerned teachers died in a motor accident while trying to know why they were yet to be paid.
“We are passing through a lot; two of our members died in motor accident on their way to Abuja to know the reason we have not been paid.
“The work load in our schools is much. Also, some teachers are tired of borrowing money from their colleagues that are on payroll for transportation; working for two years without salary is no different from being jobless”, the teacher lamented.
Nneka Ukachukwu
