PRESS STATEMENT
SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS UNION
SUPPORTS COMPUTERIZED PAY SYSTEM
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has called on the Federal Government not to scrap the e-Payment System that has just been introduced for financial transactions in all Federal Establishments in the country but to strengthen it by rectifying any shortcoming that had been noticed.
Making the call in a press statement issued in Lagos, the ASCSN Secretary-General, Barrister Solomon Onaghinon stated that since computerized pay method was first introduced in some Federal Ministries through the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), civil servants in those ministries had been receiving their salaries as and when due without tears.
The plea came on the heels of a news report indicating that the Radio, Television and Theater Arts Workers Union (RATTAWU) had requested the Federal Government to cancel the e-Payment model.
Onaghinon observed that during the regime of manual financial dealings, some top management staff in certain Ministries would collect civil servants salaries and other benefits and put them in bank fixed deposits for months to yield interests which they diverted to their private pockets while workers continued to moan and groan over non-payment of their salaries and other entitlements.
“The e-Payment system would surely eliminate the problems associated with ghost workers and fraudulent practices apart from the fact that it is in tune with contemporary method of payments all over the world,” he emphasised.
He noted that there must always be those who found it difficult to adapt to new ways of doing things but advised that these negligible few should endeavour to embrace positive change.
The ASCSN scribe admitted that the process of channeling salaries on line to the Bank Accounts of every civil servant would normally cause delay most especially at the initial stage, but that this did not remove the fact that the e-Payment system was faster and better than manual financial operations in the long run.
“What we advise is that the process of preparing salaries and other entitlements should start on time and whatever bottlenecks are noticed must be tackled and removed immediately,” he stressed.
He explained that every new policy must experience teething problems which must be fine-tuned to get the desired result.
Onaghinon stated that it was therefore not surprising that the e-Payment model was facing some hiccups which should be addressed.
SOLOMON .A. ONAGHINON ESQ.,
SECRETARY-GENERAL
12th February, 2009
NEWS UPDATE 
