The Ondo State Government has launched a Digital Human Resource Management System and automatic migration of retiring officers to pension payment to enhance efficiency, transparency and service delivery.
The initiative which was launched in Akure on Wednesday, is aimed at reducing error proned manual processes bedevilling the salary and pension payment in the old system, strengthening personnel data management and ease the access of civil servants and pensioners to information and other relevant services.
Speaking at the event, the Head of Service(HoS), Chief Segun Odusanya, described the initiative as a major step towards transforming the management of the state workforce.
According to a statement by Sina Adeyeye, Director Information, Office of the HoS, Odusanya said the increasing complexity of government operations had made it necessary to move away from largely manual personnel administration to a digital system capable of providing timely, accurate and accessible information.
He said the digital HR platform would help eliminate administrative bottlenecks, improve the processing and tracking of personnel records and support effective workforce planning.
The Head of Service said the system would provide government with better visibility of workers’ deployment, professional competencies and career progression, while also helping to identify areas requiring capacity development.
He added that the platform would establish a centralised repository of verifiable personnel data, ensuring that administrative decisions were based on accurate and up-to-date information.
The Head of Service stated that with the new initiative, civil service processes would become more efficient, accountable and transparent.
Speaking on data security, Odusanya disclosed that the state government was working towards domesticating the Data Protection Act initiated by the federal government to further strengthen the protection and confidentiality of workers’ personal information.
He urged civil servants across all cadres to embrace the digital transition, stressing that its success would require cooperation, patience and willingness to acquire new skills.
Odusanya also charged Permanent Secretaries, Directors and Personnel Officers to immediately assume necessary leadership for the effective implementation and continuous improvement of the system.
He commended the Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Omowunmi Isaac, for initiating the project and acknowledged the support of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for initiatives aimed at improving workers’ welfare, workplace innovation and administrative efficiency.
Speaking on the benefits of the system, the Head of Sales, SmartApps IT Limited, Mr Geoffrey Dashe, said the platform would provide workers with quick access to payroll information, including monthly wage bills and salary comparisons.
Dashe said salaries could be processed within a single day once funds were available, while the integration of payroll with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and biometric verification through facial capture and fingerprints would help ensure that the right employee received the right salary at the right time.
He said the digital transformation had also introduced an automated Pension Migration Application, which would enable retiring workers to begin the transition from active service to pension with reduced reliance on manual documentation.
According to him, civil servants will be able to access their payslips and employment information from the comfort of their homes, thereby reducing queues and unnecessary visits to government offices.
Dashe added that role-based access control and data encryption had been incorporated into the system to protect sensitive government information, while digitisation would reduce the risk of losing physical personnel records to incidents such as fire and flooding.
The Permanent Secretary, Pension Transition Office, Dr Peter Akingbade, said the digital pension system would restore dignity to pensioners by eliminating unnecessary delays, lost files and repetitive paperwork.
Akingbade said pensioners had, in the past, faced difficulties arising from lost records and prolonged verification processes, but noted that digitisation would ensure that relevant records were securely stored and readily accessible.
He identified seamless data verification, robust biometric tracking and automated auditing as some of the major benefits of the new system.
According to him, the system would also empower government policymakers with instant access to reliable data analytics on salaries, expenditure and other areas of public administration.
He stressed that access to such information would ensure that government policies and decisions were based on verifiable data rather than guesswork.
Akingbade, however, emphasised the need for collaboration among all stakeholders, including the offices of the Head of Service, Accountant-General, Auditor-General, Pension Transition Office, technical partners, pensioners and retirees, to ensure a smooth migration.
He assured that the Pension Transition Office was committed to the process, particularly to ensuring that legitimate pensioners were not left behind.
Also speaking, the Ondo State Accountant-General, Mr Segun Orisabinueni, described the digital payroll system as a welcome development that would give workers greater control over their salary information.
Orisabinueni said gone were the days when civil servants had to obtain printed payslips manually, noting that workers could now access and print their payslips directly from their phones.
He said the system would also enable workers to easily identify the reasons for changes in their salaries and deductions without having to depend on salary officers.
The Accountant-General explained that the new system would improve the prompt payment of salaries and make it easier to detect and resolve cases of underpayment and overpayment.
He also noted that the automated pension migration would address situations where workers posted to remote locations might be unaware that they had reached retirement age.
Orisabinueni said such workers would be automatically migrated into the pension system, making the process easier for human resource managers and retirees.
He further said the digital system would reduce the need for intermediaries in pension and gratuity processing, thereby protecting retirees from paying unofficial fees to have their benefits processed.
He commended the Commissioner for Finance, the Head of Service, SmartApps and other stakeholders for the initiative.
The event was attended by the Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Omowunmi Isaac; Permanent Secretaries; Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies; personnel officers and other government by officials across the state, as well as representatives of SmartApps Information and Technologies, the technical partner for the digital transformation initiative.
About the Author
