Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and Payroll Fraud in Rivers State Civil Service

This paper examined the impact of Integrated Payroll System and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) on payroll fraud in Rivers State Civil Service. The paper was anchored on the Fraud Triangle Theory (FTT) and Bureaucratic theory as its analytical framework. Survey research design was adopted for the paper. The population of the paper consisted of 3896 civil servants of the Rivers State Civil Service from 3 purposively selected ministries. While the sample size is 363 senior and junior workers of Rivers State Civil Service determined by the application of Taro Yamane’s formula. Primary data for the study was collected through the use of likert scale structured questionnaire. The questionnaire items were designed on a four-point rating scale. A reliability index of 0.82 based on 0-1 scale was obtained for the instrument of the study. Frequencies, simple percentages and weighted mean scores were used to analyse the demographic data of the respondents and the question posed by the paper. While Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the hypotheses at 5% level of significance. The findings of the paper showed that Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) has significant impact in reducing incidences of ghost workers in Rivers State Civil Service. Also, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) plays a significant role in curbing payroll fraud in Rivers State Civil Service. The paper recommended among others that; Government should strengthen the internal control mechanism of IPPIS so as to continuously detect and block any loopholes that will give room for payroll fraud.