STOP THE PAPER CHASE: Civil Servants Decry Repeated Submission of Documents, Demand Unified Digital Records System
By KEMI KASUMU
Ayedogbon attributed the recurring requests to what he described as the failure of government institutions to maintain reliable and accessible digital records of their employees.
Civil servants in Nigeria have been urged to reject what has been described as the “paper chase” involved in the repeated submission of official documents to government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The call was made by Samuel Sunday Ayedogbon in a commentary dated August 27, 2026, in which he criticised the continued practice of asking workers to resubmit documents they may have submitted several years or even decades earlier.
According to Ayedogbon, Nigerian civil servants are routinely asked to provide documents including birth certificates, letters of first appointment, promotion letters, bank details, Bank Verification Numbers (BVN), next-of-kin information and medical reports during verification exercises, promotions, salary audits and pension processing.
He questioned why an employee who has spent 10, 15 or even 20 years in government service would still be required to produce a first appointment letter submitted when he or she joined the service.
“For what purpose?” he asked, arguing that the practice exposes a fundamental weakness in the government’s record-keeping system.
‘Government is not keeping our records’
Ayedogbon attributed the recurring requests to what he described as the failure of government institutions to maintain reliable and accessible digital records of their employees.
He argued that many MDAs lack a centralised database capable of providing complete and verifiable information on their personnel.
According to him, the consequence is that whenever government conducts verification, promotion exercises, payroll audits or pension reviews, workers are often directed to submit documents afresh.
He also cited cases of missing physical files, fire outbreaks and deterioration of records as additional reasons workers are repeatedly forced to prove their employment history.
“A man’s 35 years of service is reduced to ‘bring evidence again’,” he said.
Samuel further argued that inadequate personnel records have contributed to the problem of ghost workers, while genuine employees are simultaneously subjected to cumbersome verification procedures.
He described the situation as degrading, saying professionals such as professors, nurses and directors should not be treated as though they were newly applying for employment every few years.
Call for National Civil Service Data Portal
As a solution, Samuel called for the immediate development of a unified National Civil Service Data Portal to replace the current dependence on paper records.
He proposed that the system should be managed by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation in collaboration with relevant institutions, including the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Under his proposal, civil servants would upload their relevant documents once, after which the information would be verified and securely stored.
The documents would include appointment letters, educational and professional certificates, BVN, NIN, bank details and next-of-kin information.
Personal digital dashboard for workers
Samuel also proposed that every government employee should have a secure personal dashboard through which they could access their employment records and update permissible personal information.
Such a platform, he said, could allow workers to update their telephone numbers, residential addresses, next-of-kin information and bank details without repeatedly visiting human resources departments.
He further suggested that MDAs should access employees’ records directly from the central system whenever information is required for promotion, training, auditing or other official purposes.
“This will eliminate the need to disturb workers to submit the same documents repeatedly,” he argued.
Automatic retirement tracking
The proposed system, according to Samuel, should also contain a retirement-management module capable of tracking each worker’s length of service and date of birth.
He suggested that the system should automatically flag employees approaching retirement, ideally about 18 months before their exit date.
Such advance notification, he said, would enable government agencies to prepare pension and gratuity payments ahead of time and ensure that retirement benefits are paid at the point of exit rather than years later.
Benefits to government
Samuel said a unified digital personnel database would also provide significant benefits to government.
He argued that it would enable authorities to maintain an accurate nominal roll showing the number of workers, their locations, grades and salary costs.
It would also assist government in identifying and eliminating ghost workers while improving manpower and budgetary planning.
The system, he said, would allow government to know in advance how many employees would retire in particular years, thereby making it easier to plan for pension and gratuity obligations.
He further linked digitised records to anti-corruption efforts, arguing that electronic files would reduce opportunities for officials to exploit missing documents and demand money from workers to locate or reconstruct files.
‘Respect workers and keep their records’
Samuel appealed to the Federal Government, state governments and heads of service to move away from the traditional culture of repeated paper submissions.
“Mr. President, Governors, Head of Service: This 21st century is not the era of ‘bring 10 copies.’ It is the era of data,” he said.
He called for the immediate domestication and funding of a National Civil Service Human Resource Management System, arguing that the technology and relevant datasets already exist within government institutions.
“NIMC has our biometrics. PenCom has our pension data. IPPIS has our salary data. What is missing is the political will to integrate them,” he said.
Samuel urged government to stop making workers bear the consequences of institutional inefficiency, insisting that proper record-keeping, timely retirement benefits and respect for civil servants should become fundamental features of Nigeria’s public service.
“Keep our records. Respect our service. Pay us at the point of exit,” he said, adding that Nigeria deserves a civil service system driven by reliable data rather than missing files and repeated requests for documentation.
