The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, said this on Monday in a circular with ref no: HCSF/SPSO/ODD/NCE/RR/650309/3, dated 25th November, 2022.

The circular titled, ‘Computation of Leave Based on Working Days and Approval of Paternity Leave in the Public Service’, said that this was in line with the provisions of the Public Service Rules, 2021 Edition.

“Government has also approved Paternity Leave for serving male officers whose spouse delivers a baby. The period of the leave shall be fourteen working days. The leave shall not be more than once in two years, and a for maximum of four children.

Where the family of a male officer adopts a child under four months old, the officer will similarly enjoy Paternity Leave for a period of fourteen working days,” Yemi-Esan said.

She said that request for such leave shall be accompanied by the Expected Date of Delivery’s report of the officer’s wife or evidence of approval of the adoption of the child by the relevant government bodies.

She also said that the effective date of the circular was 25th November, 2022.

Federal Executive Council in September this year approved a 14-day paternity leave for men in the federal civil service, to make men properly bond with their newborn baby or adopted one.

She said the bonding was important to help the newly-born or adopted baby properly bond with the father in the early period.

“We’ve also gotten approval to include paternity leave. This is something that is new. And this is something that the unions in the service asked that we include, and luckily, we’ve been able to include it.

“We’ve also been able to ensure that leave now is calculated based on working days, not on calendar days, that also has been approved. We also have introduced the transition from paper service to a digital service. So these are some of the new things that are in the new PSR that has just been approved by the federal executive council,” she said.

Over 1,000 culprits were said to have been discovered in one ministry while 500 others found in other ministries, departments and agencies during a service-wide verification exercise will be delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, disclosed this while speaking at the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria,’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The programme was attended by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Prof Olatunde Babawale, Prof Isaac Obasi and other dignitaries.

The HoS explained that her administration has taken decisive steps to nip in the bud the alarming sharp practices and acts of impunity being perpetrated on the IPPIS, as well as to purge the system of all infiltrations.

She stated, “It would be recalled that in March last year, the office informed of the detection of fake letters of employment presented in some ministries. For instance, in the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“In the light of the aforementioned, it is disheartening to point out that the office recently received a report from the Federal Civil Service Commission forwarding the names of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment and which are to be delisted from the IPPIS platform.

“Similarly, following the outcome of the Service-Wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the Federal Civil Service Commission has also requested the suspension of the salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs who failed to appear for the exercise pending further clearance.”

According to her, the government’s effort to stop financial leakages in the civil service had created a gap leading to a series of implementation issues, adding that as of March 2022, over 380,000 officers had been captured on the IPPIS payroll comprising 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs, respectively.

Yemi-Esan further said that her office is carrying out a mop-up exercise in the core and non-core MDAs which would be rounded off in September.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan issued the advisory in a circular shared on Wednesday December 8.

Arise TV reported that in the circular signed by Dr. S.A. Adegoke on behalf of the Head of Service and addressed to all staff, Heads of Departments/units and union leaders with the title ”Envisaged Delay in Payment of December 2021 Salary- a Cautionary Advice”, Esan said the warning became necessary because of the recurrent trends of shortfall in budgetary allocation and its attendant effect on payment of salary in recent times across various MDAs.

It read; “It is noteworthy that while it is important to issue this advice, staff are here by assured that the centre is doing everything within its capability to forestall unnecessary delays.The contents of this circular should be treated with seriousness it deserves.”