- We request for your patience as we await further directives from the IPPD Core Team in the State Department for Public Service
- The development is a shocker to many workers and their families amid rising cost of living crisis, which has sent many to stress.
Image: FILE
Thousands of civil servants are to go without their July salaries over what officials termed as a technical hitch.
Internal memos issued in various departments have cited a technical hitch that affected the processing of state payrolls.
The Ministry of Public Service said ongoing upgrades to the new payment system for government salaries encountered hitches.
The upgrade seeks to boost the management of government payrolls that have been marred by ghost workers and doubled salaries.
The government is adopting a digital-based platform dubbed the Unified Human Resource system that can avoid double payment of workers and avoid graft.
A memo issued at the State Department of Correctional Service dated July 25 asked for patience.
“This is to inform all the officers that the salary for the month of July 2023 will delay due to the migration of the old manual Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) system to the new online unified human resource (UHR) system.”
“We request for your patience as we await further directives from the IPPD core team in the state department for public service,” read part of the memo.
Another memo at the gender department indicated the same.
“This is to inform all officers in the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action that there has been a delay in processing of salaries for the month of July 2023 due to the logistic challenges occasioned by the migration of the old manual Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD system to the New online Unified Human Resource (UHR) system.”
“We request for your patience as we await further directives from the IPPD Core Team in the State Department for Public Service,” read the memo dated July 24.
The development is a shocker to many workers and their families amid the rising cost of living crisis.
Officials say migration to the UHR system is part of commitments that the National Treasury made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a bid to tame graft in the payment of workers at the national and county levels.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) said earlier a unified system will help track national and county government entities that pay salaries and other benefits outside the prescribed caps.
Under the system, every public servant will be assigned a permanent unique identification number.
There are talks of planned meetings among affected unions to call for a possible strike if the issue persists.
This is after financial institutions including banks, microfinance institutions, and savings and credit cooperative societies have already raised jitters over the delays saying this will affect those having pending loans.
It is the second time that the workers are experiencing salary delays this year, the first time was April.
Then, the government blamed the issue for an acute cash crunch and promised not to have a similar experience.
Officials then explained they had prioritized other crucial state expenditures like honouring debt obligations over salaries.