President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN to halt future payments to the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, or MDAs, of the Federal Government until further notice as part of his ongoing efforts to seize firm control of his Administration.
The embattled CBN chairman Godwin Emeifiele was suspended and given to the Department of State Services DSS for further action, a source informed the Saturday Tribune in Abuja on Friday.
The mandate, according to the source, was issued as soon as President Tinubu took office in order to ensure MDA accountability and stop government treasury looting.
The source claimed that there was no exemption to the complete and explicit directive.
According to an investigation, the MDAs have completely suspended payments to their creditors as a result of the development and are finding it impossible to continue operating without any funding from the government or CBN.
The directive has reportedly suspended operations for two consecutive weeks due to the agency’s lack of funding, according to the Director General of a federal government agency who verified the news to Saturday Tribune in confidence.
He stated, “We are not anticipating money from anywhere, debts are stacking up, even money we are owing Media Houses for commercials, and we have no money to cover the obligations. Federal Government has placed an embargo on CBN to restrict future payments to the MDAs.
The staff salaries are being paid directly from the federation’s office of the Accountant General, which is a saving grace for us. I predict things will return to normal very soon.
This occurred immediately after President Tinubu gave his approval to suspend the Assistant Director in Charge of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS). It was learned that the Assistant Director at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), who was in charge of staff wages, allegedly conspired with some workers to inflate the salaries of an undefined number of lower-level employees.
Numerous civil servants have reportedly been suspended for alleged salary padding on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) across a number of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), including the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF).
A senior official in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation acknowledged the development and hinted that individuals named had been suspended awaiting investigation.
He claims, “The scam was detected when a level 7 officer, whose pay should have been in the neighborhood of N60,000, was paid over N400,000, which was in the neighborhood of a Director’s wage package.
A small group of government servants in various MDAs has been engaged in a salary-puffing scheme for some time, with the IPPIS office at the OAGF serving as its hub.
The insider also implied that “a staff member suspected of being connected with the breach has been suspended to allow for a thorough investigation.”
The source further stated that “all necessary measures are being taken to strengthen the controls around the IPPIS payment platform, and an independent forensic audit of the entire payroll system is underway to determine whether the reported breach is isolated or widespread.”