The Federal Government has intensified the fight against corruption through the enforcement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

This comes as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it has saved the government over N18 billion through the system.

“We’ve saved about N18 billion right now that we told the government, in the words of my chairman, ‘restrain the money,” said ICPC spokesperson, Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa.

Okoduwa, the Director of Public Enlightenment at the anti-graft agency, made the disclosure on Tuesday during her appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

She noted that some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) that were not on IPPIS have been made to join the scheme as a result of the development.

The ICPC spokesperson stressed, “It is even more than N18 billion right now. The Ministry of Finance is capturing them now on IPPIS but their personnel expenditure alone, we’ve restrained over N18 billion.”

She recalled that the agency launched its System Study Review at the national summit on ‘Diminishing Corruption in the Public Service’ which held in Abuja on November 19.

The report, she noted, identified some health and education institutions as the worst culprits in padding budgets allocated to payment of personnel’s salaries.

Okoduwa highlighted a situation where the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Bayelsa had over N900 million as surplus in its salary purse.

She explained that the case was flagged while the management team of the centre was summoned to clarify the rationale behind the surplus uncovered.