The Bauchi State Commissioner of Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde, recently announced the state government’s introduction of fingerprint devices to replace attendance registry booklets in a bid to track workers’ attendance.
This was particularly to discourage absenteeism among primary and secondary school teachers and at the same time weed out ghost workers.
This development followed a discovery where about 53.5% of workers were found to exhibit truancy which has cost the education sector greatly.
Dr Aliyu further confirmed the deployment of the clock in devices to all 219 secondary schools under the ministry. He affirms how adopting technology is necessary to effectively monitor staff conduct especially when it involves a large number of people. He added that the salaries of erring staff will be withheld.
Considering previous success in the public sector, this move is likely to yield positive results. In 2016, the federal government introduced the human resource module of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in the Federal Civil Service to achieve a seamless compilation of civil servants’ data for salary payment and eliminate ghost workers simultaneously.
Although kicked against, after two years, the system was able to uncover 80,115 ghost officers within the Nigeria Police Force. Within the same time, the Federal Government saved ₦68 billion on personnel cost through IPPIS.
Apart from discouraging ghost workers, since adoption in Nigeria, automation in public establishments has proven effective in other ways. In 2016, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) introduced biometric clearance during community development service meetings to encourage participation, which is a factor considered before monthly stipends are paid.
