Federal workers’, pensioners’ January 2024 salaries delay over GIFMIS challenges
Salaries of federal workers and pensioners for January 2024 are to be delayed, Westernpost gathered.
For the federal worker, the delay is on the backdrop of non-conclusion of the 2024 appropriation on the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform by the Office of Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF).
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) in a notice to pensioners said, “Kindly be informed that pension fund for January, 2024 is yet to be released. We have put necessary structures in place to enable speedy processing of payment once the fund is available.
“Please note that pension payments are remitted through the CBN directly into the individual bank accounts of pensioners which PTAD has no control over.”
For the federal government workers, indication of the delay came via a 31st January memo sighted by and entitled, “Delay in the payment of January 2024 Salary”, from the Bursary department of the National Mathematics Centre, Abuja to all its staff in which the institution sought to inform them of the development.
The memo referenced NMC/BUR/GC/Vol.1, and was signed by the acting bursar, Pius Ukwah, who said, “We wish to inform you that January 2024 salaries will be delayed beyond normal”.
President Bola Tinubu presented the 2024 Appropriation Bill to a special session of the National Assembly on November 29, 2023 and the federal lawmakers passed the N28.87trlliion Budget of Renewed Hope which focuses on job-rich economic growth, human security, and macro-economic stability on 30th December 2023. The President signed it into law on January 1, 2024.
“As of today, the OAGF is still working on finalising the 2024 appropriation on the GIFMIS platform and as a result, the personnel warrant for January is yet to be released”
The memo which copied the Director/CE, the Registrar and pasted on all notice boards stated further, “The same situation applies to all MDAs and not just the Centre. We regret the inconvenience caused by this delay.”
He, however, urged the staff to exercise patience as the agency awaits a positive resolution from the OAGF.
The federal government introduced GIFMIS on April 2nd, 2012, to tackle budget management and accounting across MDAs and to address key sources of economic inefficiency.
It would be recalled that the OAGF last year encountered some technical challenges, leading to the delay in the payment of June salaries to some government workers.
Users of the GIFMIS IT system battle only two significant challenges and these are poor computer errors resulting from incompetency in IT on the part of users and poor networks arising from the inaccessibility of internet facilities.
