*Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, says the Presidential Steering Committee is mandated to聽 offer solutions to the possible leakages inherent in the systems, exploited by people to divert public funds

Gbenga Kayode | 绿帽献妻

Against the backdrop of alleged irregularities in the systems, the Federal Government has inaugurated a Presidential Steering Committee to review implementation of the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS), Treasury Single Account (TSA), and Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) respectively.

Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, who is also the Chairman, inaugurated the committee Friday, August 12, 2022, in Abuja, FCT.

Pantami disclosed that the committee would be supervised by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, as well as other relevant government institutions.

The Minister also stressed that the existing systems have technical challenges which needed to be corrected.

Members of the committee are National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone Limited, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning as well as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Others are the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation as well as National Salaries, Wages and Income Commission.

The rest are the Bureau of Public Service and Reforms, BPSR, and the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoDE)..

According to Pantami, the committee has been mandated to proffer solutions to the possible leakages inherent in the systems that were exploited by people to divert public funds.

He stated: 鈥淭his technical committee has been mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari, through a letter requesting his approval to review some of the technical processes and systems deployed in government.

鈥淭his committee will serve as a presidential committee with the mandate of ensuring the review of the strengths of these systems and the challenges or weaknesses,” said he.

Pantami further noted: 鈥淭he committee is to advise the president on how to improve the systems particularly, if there are leakages that are being exploited by evil people.

鈥淭he issue came about on July 19, 2022, when we had a meeting with the president along with other ministries where some technical issues and some challenges were discussed.”

He also recalled the process of deployment for IPPIS commenced in 2006, that of GISFMIS in 2012, while TSA commenced in 2015 accordingly.

As of the time the systems were deployed, Pantami revealed that the provision of NITDA Act 2006 under Section A of setting the standardisation of ICT deployment in federal public institutions was not followed.

He stated “these three systems were not subjected to government certification and IT project clearance as encouraged by law and many other government policies.

鈥淗owever, in spite of that, many achievements had been recorded by their deployment.

鈥淔or example, based on the report from the relevant institutions of government, the IPPIS saved the government over N120 billion, while聽 TSA saved over N10 trillion for the government.鈥�

Pantami said these records showed that the government had recorded some gains, particularly in the recent allegations on the system by people who siphoned money.

The Minister added: 鈥淚t is because of this that we must identify where the challenges are, if any, and see how these systems can be enhanced technically.

鈥淪o, that we will be able to consolidate the gains achieved so far and also improve on them to achieve many more successes.

鈥淣ational Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), looking at it鈥檚 mandate will serve as the secretariat.

鈥淭he approval and the directive has clearly mentioned that all government institutions that manage these three systems must give unlimited access to the committee to ensure very strong recommendations for approval,鈥� he said.

The minister warned that any institution that fails to give access would be reported to President Muhammadu Buhari.

“A punishment is going to be recommended to the President for implementation,” Pantami added.

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