By Evelyn Omotoye
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Officers in charge of salary and pension payment in the Ondo State Integrated Payroll System (IPS),  have been warned to desist from any form of sharp practices and fraudulent acts or face the consequences of illegality.

The Ondo State Head of Service, Mr Toyin Akinkuotu Esq gave the warning  during a one-day workshop organised by the Pension Transitional Department of his office on Measures to Forestall Incidence of Malpractices Associated with the Payment of Salaries and Pensions in the State’s IPS held in Akure recently.

Akinkuotu expressed displeasure over some mischievous officers engaging in fraudulent act of colluding with some retirees and other workers to perpetrate evil in the system.

He said the workshop became imperative in order, to further put in place better strategies to arrest the disturbing incidence of malpractices trending in the payment of salaries and pension in the state IPS.

He therefore charged the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) to design an efficient and robust finger print application as a fraud-proof measure to curb the menace in state’s IPS .

Akinkuotu equally tasked the Pension Transitional Department to ensure effective interface between salaries and retirement benefits processing in their department.

He also urged salary officers to be more efficient on their jobs, so that salary of any retiring officer would be halted immediately, to avoid a situation of a retiree being paid both salary and pension at the same time.

To ensure this, Akinkuotu stated that salary and accounting officers must make sure all retiring officers adhere to  the 3 months pre-retirement compulsory leave to process their retirement documents.

The workshop which featured three lecture series, was handled by experienced professionals in various relevant  field including the state Accountant-General, represented by the Director, Central Pay, Mr Ayodele and the state Auditor-General , Mr Adegoke.