More civil servants have raised concerns about deductions that read “WACS Loan Account” from their September salaries, but the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) has also said they only paid what they owed.

This followed FIJ’s report on questionable loan deductions on Sunday.

In an interview on Monday, Olajide Anoti (not real name), who works with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), told FIJ that he was shocked to see a deduction of N89,200 from his September salary.

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“I noticed that my September Payslip read that a certain WACS Loan account deducted N89,200 from my salary. I am surprised; I don’t understand what is happening,” he said.

“I was going to just wait until there was a memo or something from the federal government, but my colleagues from work called for the same issue. I panicked. There were comments that gave me reasons to doubt IPPIS’s integrity. I thought it was a fraud.”

Olalere Amosun (not real name), who also works with the FRCN, described the deductions as concerning but less alarming for him. He said he had taken a loan from a cooperative society earlier in the year, and that the WACS deduction from his salary matched the exact amount borrowed.

“Unlike my other co-workers, I may have fewer reasons to be worried. I had taken a loan earlier in the year. The deductions I saw on my payslip was about the same amount that gets deducted from my payslip,” he said.

“I don’t know if I am supposed to be worried because I don’t know what WACS is. I have never borrowed from this so-called WACS.”

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Ojukwu Chidi (not real name) has solid reasons to be disturbed. In his case, the amount left of his pay cannot sustain his family through the month.

“They removed more than N100,000 from my September salary. What is left is barely enough to feed my family. This is the first time I have seen something like this. I hope something can be done about it soon. I am more than worried,” he said.

‘THE DEDUCTION IS LOAN MANAGEMENT’ — IPPIS

Speaking about the September deductions, a front desk officer at the IPPIS told FIJ that the deductions were not fraudulent. According to her, those with deductions that read “WACS Loan account” must have taken loans.

“The WACS is a loan management system. It is supposed to unify loan collection, management and repayment for federal workers. The deductions are collations of the loans that these workers have taken. So the WACS streamlines these loans and removes them at once,” she said.

“For those that are not sure of what their monies have been deducted for, the IPPIS is currently working on an application that will allow workers monitor and manage third-party loans on their phones.”

“Through this app, they can track the breakdown of the loan deductions from anywhere. The application should be ready next week.”

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FIJ also gathered from the IPPIS WACS website that WACS is a loan management system introduced by the IPPIS to manage loans for civil servants on the federal government’s payroll.

According to the IPPIS, it is an initiative of its third-party division.

“The IPPIS Third Party Settlement Management System was designed by the third-party division to serve as the operating platform for the division and, among other things, provide a single source of truth for loan data to eliminate all the lapses associated with manual processing and management of pay-day loans to federal government employees enrolled under IPPIS,” the IPPIS WACS website reads.

“The OAGF has approved the commencement of the loan revalidation exercise to streamline all existing loans to federal government employees on IPPIS. The loan revalidation exercise is fully automated on the platform, enabling data upload, verification, harmonisation and reconciliation in line with civil service rules.”

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‘THEY SHOULD HAVE INFORMED US‘

FIJ contacted the civil servants to state the explanations provided by the IPPIS. In response, they said that neither the IPPIS nor the federal government had informed them about such arrangements.

“As to whether I am aware of such loan management scheme, the answer is no. They should have at least alerted us,” one said.

“Also, we got loan deductions before, but the system we had always highlighted all the third parties and how much was credited to them from our salaries. Now, imagine one of the third parties claim that I have not paid them, which record do I have to defend myself,” he said.

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Chidi also shared Anoti’s sentiments.

“The IPPIS is not transparent enough if these are the issues I should expect. How can you withdraw third-party loans without informing me ahead?” Chidi asked.

“In fact, with the loan arrangements I have, I don’t usually pay that much monthly. I hope IPPIS looks into this and rectifies it soon or at least let us know what is going on.”