Strike: FG grants ASUU more concessions on IPPIS

The Federal Government of Nigerian has offered to accommodate identified peculiarities of university workers on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), the payment platform for entitlements of the government employees.

This commitment was made by the Acting Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Okolieaboh Sylva, at a meeting of relevant parties involved in the lingering crisis between the government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The meeting, which held on Thursday, was facilitated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Also at the meeting were other heads of ministries, departments and agencies of government including the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa; Director General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, and the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan.

The new development may have foreclosed the possibility of the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) developed and proposed to the government by ASUU.

ASUU’s non-academic counterparts- Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and other Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have also presented another alternative, which it tagged University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (U3PS).

Adoption of UTAS is one of the conditions ASUU said must be met by the federal government before the ongoing more than seven-month-old strike by the union could be suspended.

But the acting AGF said adoption of UTAS as insisted by ASUU would only open floodgate of similar requests by other agencies and departments of government.

However,  Sylva said rather than having multiple payment platforms the government is willing to identify the peculiarities of universities including the allowances due the academic staff and accommodate them in the IPPIS.

He said the adoption of more than one payment platform by the government will lead to additional costs, adding that by accepting UTAS, the government risks getting demands from other MDAs to opt out of the platform.

“Let us sit down and know what these issues are and address them inside IPPIS. We can correct whatever mistake we make now”, he said.

“If we accept what ASUU is saying, it will create room for everyone to be asking for their own payment platform, the military is on IPPIS and health workers, ASUU should sit down with us and see the progress we have made.”

He said his office is willing to adopt the peculiarities to resolve the lingering dispute with ASUU. “Let ASUU come to us, we are willing to accept. If we are going to adopt UTAS, that shows we are going to build the salaries of other civil servants to UTAS.”

Meanwhile, ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, said this was not the first time the government was making a promise of looking into the issues and yet failed.

Quoting the University Miscellaneous Act, ASUU insisted on the autonomy of the university and rejected payment of salaries through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

Osodeke also queried NITDA’s refusal to make available the report of the last test conducted on UTAS. He insisted that the report must be made available for the union to study.