IPPIS: Oil workers warn against implementation of new payroll system

Oil workers have warned the Federal Government to halt the planned implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System in the oil and gas sector, saying the system is not in conformity with the peculiar nature of the industry.
Speaking against the backdrop of a deadline handed down by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to some agencies in the oil and gas industry, the workers said that if the government insists on imposing the IPPIS and its several impediments and hardship on the personnel records and payroll system in the oil and gas industry, they will not hesitate to reciprocate with an unfathomable industrial crisis.
The workers threatened that any deadline that is given by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to force the implementation or to cut the funding of the agencies will be vehemently resisted.
Giving the warning in Lagos on Friday, the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Senior Association of Nigeria, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, and the National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Seyi Gambo, said that the government agencies in the oil and gas industry are currently operating a very efficient, transparent and International Financial Reporting System system and there is no need to introduce a new system that will drag the industry payroll system back.
Ogun noted that the current system operating in agencies in the industry adequately supports easy extraction of data for national budget processes and it equally makes auditing of personnel records to be undoubtedly accomplished.
“We, PENGASSAN, have written to the Ministers of Petroleum Resources, and Labour and Productivity, as well as the Accountant General of the Federation on our reservations about the planned implementation of the IPPIS policy in our industry. We are against our industry being used a guinea pig to try all forms of policies that is not working in other industry,” he said.
On his own, Comrade Gambo explained that the new personnel payroll system did not factor in the ongoing reforms in the industry, especially the Petroleum Industry Bill, adding: “The IPPIS does not include allowances that are pre-determined because of their technical nature.”
He noted that IPPIS was implemented and failed in the education sector because it was rigid in nature and did not support time-bound remunerations, calling on the government to shelve the planned implementation of the new payroll system so as not to throw the oil and gas sector into an avoidable industrial crisis.
The PENGASSAN General Secretary, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile, argued that instead of introducing the IPPIS policy that could bug down the industry with unnecessary bureaucratic bottleneck, the government should task agencies in the industry to evolve the pragmatism and professionalism required in the technocrats’ world.
Olowoshile said: “With IFRS in place, it is easier to generate certified, reliable and trusted information for easier integration and uploading into Treasury Single Account’s main server for pooling purposes. It is better for the government to engage us on the way forward than forcing a bitter pill in the form of IPPIS down our throat.”