The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) has denied reports that the ‘IPPIS Payroll Validation’ section on its official website was hijacked by hackers.
The OAGF denied the reports in a statement on Monday, signed by its Director (Press and Public Relations), Bawa Mokwa.
The IPPIS is a control mechanism to keep a centralised database system for the Nigerian Public Service with a single, accurate source of employee information that provides integration with other business applications.
The initiative was introduced in 2014 and it is managed by the OAGF.
The IPPIS data manager has been criticised for the alleged compromise of civil servants’ data.
Responding to the allegations, the OAGF explained that it does not save data on its website.
The OAGF noted that it has already implemented its ICT Security Policy which ensures that its digital assets are secured in line with global best practices.
“The IPPIS is not using the OAGF website for any transaction. The website is actually the medium to share information. Neither payroll nor payment is made through the website, therefore, no data is contained in the website”, OAGF said.
The OAGF stated that the IPPIS validation portal that was recently developed for updates of employees information was deployed for a period and after the exercise was over, the data were pulled out and the site shut down permanently.
OAGF explained, “The IPPIS Validation Portal was deployed on a secure platform. A secured database and application were purchased from the popular HELIX-FONS.
“The Office acknowledged that the IPPIS is of utmost importance to Nigerian workers, thus it became imperative to assuage the fears of any loss or breach of employees’ personal data in the IPPIS database.”