* Govt demands accountability of N30bn expenditure,
insists on TSA
The hope of early resumption of academic activities on
university campuses by students and their parents was dashed
thursday as the conciliation meeting between the federal government
and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) remains
deadlocked.
The parties have agreed to resume meeting in a week’s time. The
meeting which was conveyed thursday by the Minister of Labour and
Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, in his office, had in attendance;
the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, and his team, the
Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben
Akabueze; Chairman of the Salaries and Wages Commission,
representatives of the National Universities Commission (NUC),
members of ASUU led by its National President, Dr. Debo Ogunyemi,
and senior staff of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Ngige in his opening remarks accused ASUU of not following the
proper procedure before embarking on strike.
According to him, “There must be a mandatory letter of 15 days to
labour ministry, to education before going on strike.”
He insisted that all agreements were supposed to be domiciled in
ministry of labour in order to track implementation as agreement
gives room to renegotiation.
The minister said: “Two days ago, we met here on the ban of ASUU
by the Kogi State Government and thereafter, on the sideline, we
touched the current ASUU strike which has led us to where we are.
Today, we are going to discuss the issue of that strike. We don’t
want to apportion blames because if we do, we will not resolve the
issues. Also, we don’t want to be legalistic because if we do, the
strike should not have occurred without the mandatory notice as
required by the Trade Dispute Act.
“If we want to apportion blames, certain things have also been
done by the government side that went to do the negotiation in the
National Assembly and made political agreement with them, and that
collective bargaining agreement was not domicile in this ministry.
This is the ministry which is the only agency that has the mandate
to resolve labour issues between employers and employees as per the
Nigerian constitution. In all, government is desirous to attend to
the issues raised and is not trying to show any bad faith. The
issues are well known to all of us because they are a product of
the 2009 agreement whose fallout was the memorandum of
understanding (MoU) signed in 2013 with which government was
supposed to release some funds.
“Last November, we all agreed that the funds released should be
audited forensically and that why that is going on, some amount of
money should be released. One or two things happened and due to
laspses to Labour administration, there were some trajectory that
made it impossible for some of the conditions not to have been
fulfilled.
“The Babalakin committee is working on those issues and I know
that ASUU members, as knowledgeable men are aware that ILO
conventions permits that there should be renegotiation and that was
why we allowed the Ministry of Education go ahead with the
renegotiation of the CBA.”
However, before the parley went into a technical session, Ngige
noted that government is desirous to many of the issues raised by
ASUU, hence the decision to call the conciliation meeting to look
into a possible renegotiation between the two sides in line with
the International Labour Organisation Convention.
He said it was based on this that he, as the chief conciliator,
urged the Ministry of Education to go ahead with the renegotiation
so that students can go back to school and conclude their
examinations.
He gave an insight into the modality of the meeting that it will
not leave any room for apportioning of blames, and that it would
not be legalistic for a melting point to quickly be reached.
But Ogunyemi, in his response, disagreed with Ngige, stressing
that the minister had taken side with his education counterpart,
Adamu.
He insisted that ASUU informed relevant ministries before
embarking on strike, noting that there was a letter dated July 10
to inform the major stakeholders.
The ASUU president said in the last 10 months, the union had
written 10 letters trying to reach out to relevant stakeholders
after suspending the seven days warning strike in November last
year.
He clarified that the strike is not a fresh action and that they
are open to suggestions.
After their opening remarks, the meeting later went into a
technical session, which lasted for hours.
While briefing the media afterwards, Ogunyemi said there was
progress in the discussions but that it was unfortunate that it was
not finalised because the leadership of ASUU had to go back and
brief its members on the terms given by the government and come
back in a week’s time when the meeting would resume with a further
resolution of the universities teachers.
He, however, did not give a hint of government’s proposal but
said the strike would continue and that the union would revert to
the government next week.
On whether the strike will be called off before then, he said:
“The leadership of the union did not call the strike, our members
called the strike and they will decide when to suspend the
strike.
“So, when our members decide otherwise, it will be off,” he
said.
On his part, Ngige said: “Within the last 48 hours, government
has been working. The Minister of Education, Minister of Finance,
Attorney General of the Federation and we have taken some
government positions which we have communicated to ASUU for them to
take back to their members to see if that can be adequate enough
for them to call off the strike.
“The major issue is that we want the strike called off so that
our children in school can write their degree and promotion exams.
ASUU graciously said they will come back to us on a date within the
next one week. It will not be later than one week so that we then
take it from there.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has disclosed that it has
demanded the details of the expenditure of N30 billion from ASUU,
as a precondition for the release of N23 billion being requested
for, by the striking union.
It also refused to back down from its insistence that the
universities would not be excluded from the Treasury Single Account
(TSA), despite the opposition of ASUU, which declared an indefinite
strike last Monday, following the non implementation of the 2009
agreement.
The Minister of Education, Adamu, while, speaking before the
Senate Committee on Tertiary Education yesterday, however expressed
hope that the strike would be called off next week, as negotiations
are currently ongoing.
“They (ASUU) asked for N23 billion to be paid. But we said the
condition for that N23 billion to be released, was for them to
account for the N30 billion they had taken, and they were not able
to account for it,” he said.
Adamu did not reveal when the N30 billion was given to the
universities.
“The Minister of Finance undertook to do the audit from the
ministry, and we agreed that the result will be known in six
months. During that six months, government undertook to be paying
them N1.5 billion each month during the time they are waiting for
this. And their grouse was the forensic audit promised by the
Minister of Finance had not been done and the money promised had
not been paid,” he added.
The minister stated that at a meeting with the union early this
week, some agreements were reached.
“So, at our meeting two days ago, our agreements were at
follows. And we will pay them all and do forensic audit on the
entire N53 billion. And that is what I tried to do yesterday
(Wednesday). I wrote to the Minister of Finance and she has already
approved and this money will be paid. Probably, by Monday, they
will be able to receive the cheque,”
“There are other issues which we didn’t agree. And that was
their request to be taken out of TSA. I told them that it is not
possible because this is s new policy and government is not going
to change it for anyone,” Adamu said.
The Minister blamed the authorities of the universities for
recruiting staff without due process, as causing the shortfalls in
salaries.
“Concerning their salary short fall, we said a lot of the
reasons spring from what they are doing wrong. They go and do a lot
of employment without proper authority. For instance, a university
can just decide to go and recruit 50 people. And IPPIS is not
aware. What they are going to get is the money they got last month,
and it will not be sufficient for them. They normally spread it
among the entire staff. Let’s say they pay 70 percent to 80 percent
but that is their fault. So, institutions, we said, must now stop
doing that. And they accepted,” he said.
”There is the issue of the registration of their pension
commission. I think they have one or two issues to iron out with
PENCOM. And I believe they will also be able to solve the problem
within a week. The issue of renegotiation is already going on. And
it is unaffected by what were have said and it will continue. From
the way they received it, I think it is possible that the strike
will be called off within a week maximum,” Adamu disclosed.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jibrin Barau expressed
hope that the strike would be resolved next week, as stated by the
minister, so students can return to school.
* Govt demands accountability of N30bn expenditure,
insists on TSA
The hope of early resumption of academic activities on
university campuses by students and their parents was dashed
thursday as the conciliation meeting between the federal government
and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) remains
deadlocked.
The parties have agreed to resume meeting in a week’s time. The
meeting which was conveyed thursday by the Minister of Labour and
Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, in his office, had in attendance;
the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, and his team, the
Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben
Akabueze; Chairman of the Salaries and Wages Commission,
representatives of the National Universities Commission (NUC),
members of ASUU led by its National President, Dr. Debo Ogunyemi,
and senior staff of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Ngige in his opening remarks accused ASUU of not following the
proper procedure before embarking on strike.
According to him, “There must be a mandatory letter of 15 days to
labour ministry, to education before going on strike.”
He insisted that all agreements were supposed to be domiciled in
ministry of labour in order to track implementation as agreement
gives room to renegotiation.
The minister said: “Two days ago, we met here on the ban of ASUU
by the Kogi State Government and thereafter, on the sideline, we
touched the current ASUU strike which has led us to where we are.
Today, we are going to discuss the issue of that strike. We don’t
want to apportion blames because if we do, we will not resolve the
issues. Also, we don’t want to be legalistic because if we do, the
strike should not have occurred without the mandatory notice as
required by the Trade Dispute Act.
“If we want to apportion blames, certain things have also been
done by the government side that went to do the negotiation in the
National Assembly and made political agreement with them, and that
collective bargaining agreement was not domicile in this ministry.
This is the ministry which is the only agency that has the mandate
to resolve labour issues between employers and employees as per the
Nigerian constitution. In all, government is desirous to attend to
the issues raised and is not trying to show any bad faith. The
issues are well known to all of us because they are a product of
the 2009 agreement whose fallout was the memorandum of
understanding (MoU) signed in 2013 with which government was
supposed to release some funds.
“Last November, we all agreed that the funds released should be
audited forensically and that why that is going on, some amount of
money should be released. One or two things happened and due to
laspses to Labour administration, there were some trajectory that
made it impossible for some of the conditions not to have been
fulfilled.
“The Babalakin committee is working on those issues and I know
that ASUU members, as knowledgeable men are aware that ILO
conventions permits that there should be renegotiation and that was
why we allowed the Ministry of Education go ahead with the
renegotiation of the CBA.”
However, before the parley went into a technical session, Ngige
noted that government is desirous to many of the issues raised by
ASUU, hence the decision to call the conciliation meeting to look
into a possible renegotiation between the two sides in line with
the International Labour Organisation Convention.
He said it was based on this that he, as the chief conciliator,
urged the Ministry of Education to go ahead with the renegotiation
so that students can go back to school and conclude their
examinations.
He gave an insight into the modality of the meeting that it will
not leave any room for apportioning of blames, and that it would
not be legalistic for a melting point to quickly be reached.
But Ogunyemi, in his response, disagreed with Ngige, stressing
that the minister had taken side with his education counterpart,
Adamu.
He insisted that ASUU informed relevant ministries before
embarking on strike, noting that there was a letter dated July 10
to inform the major stakeholders.
The ASUU president said in the last 10 months, the union had
written 10 letters trying to reach out to relevant stakeholders
after suspending the seven days warning strike in November last
year.
He clarified that the strike is not a fresh action and that they
are open to suggestions.
After their opening remarks, the meeting later went into a
technical session, which lasted for hours.
While briefing the media afterwards, Ogunyemi said there was
progress in the discussions but that it was unfortunate that it was
not finalised because the leadership of ASUU had to go back and
brief its members on the terms given by the government and come
back in a week’s time when the meeting would resume with a further
resolution of the universities teachers.
He, however, did not give a hint of government’s proposal but
said the strike would continue and that the union would revert to
the government next week.
On whether the strike will be called off before then, he said:
“The leadership of the union did not call the strike, our members
called the strike and they will decide when to suspend the
strike.
“So, when our members decide otherwise, it will be off,” he
said.
On his part, Ngige said: “Within the last 48 hours, government
has been working. The Minister of Education, Minister of Finance,
Attorney General of the Federation and we have taken some
government positions which we have communicated to ASUU for them to
take back to their members to see if that can be adequate enough
for them to call off the strike.
“The major issue is that we want the strike called off so that
our children in school can write their degree and promotion exams.
ASUU graciously said they will come back to us on a date within the
next one week. It will not be later than one week so that we then
take it from there.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has disclosed that it has
demanded the details of the expenditure of N30 billion from ASUU,
as a precondition for the release of N23 billion being requested
for, by the striking union.
It also refused to back down from its insistence that the
universities would not be excluded from the Treasury Single Account
(TSA), despite the opposition of ASUU, which declared an indefinite
strike last Monday, following the non implementation of the 2009
agreement.
The Minister of Education, Adamu, while, speaking before the
Senate Committee on Tertiary Education yesterday, however expressed
hope that the strike would be called off next week, as negotiations
are currently ongoing.
“They (ASUU) asked for N23 billion to be paid. But we said the
condition for that N23 billion to be released, was for them to
account for the N30 billion they had taken, and they were not able
to account for it,” he said.
Adamu did not reveal when the N30 billion was given to the
universities.
“The Minister of Finance undertook to do the audit from the
ministry, and we agreed that the result will be known in six
months. During that six months, government undertook to be paying
them N1.5 billion each month during the time they are waiting for
this. And their grouse was the forensic audit promised by the
Minister of Finance had not been done and the money promised had
not been paid,” he added.
The minister stated that at a meeting with the union early this
week, some agreements were reached.
“So, at our meeting two days ago, our agreements were at
follows. And we will pay them all and do forensic audit on the
entire N53 billion. And that is what I tried to do yesterday
(Wednesday). I wrote to the Minister of Finance and she has already
approved and this money will be paid. Probably, by Monday, they
will be able to receive the cheque,”
“There are other issues which we didn’t agree. And that was
their request to be taken out of TSA. I told them that it is not
possible because this is s new policy and government is not going
to change it for anyone,” Adamu said.
The Minister blamed the authorities of the universities for
recruiting staff without due process, as causing the shortfalls in
salaries.
“Concerning their salary short fall, we said a lot of the
reasons spring from what they are doing wrong. They go and do a lot
of employment without proper authority. For instance, a university
can just decide to go and recruit 50 people. And IPPIS is not
aware. What they are going to get is the money they got last month,
and it will not be sufficient for them. They normally spread it
among the entire staff. Let’s say they pay 70 percent to 80 percent
but that is their fault. So, institutions, we said, must now stop
doing that. And they accepted,” he said.
”There is the issue of the registration of their pension
commission. I think they have one or two issues to iron out with
PENCOM. And I believe they will also be able to solve the problem
within a week. The issue of renegotiation is already going on. And
it is unaffected by what were have said and it will continue. From
the way they received it, I think it is possible that the strike
will be called off within a week maximum,” Adamu disclosed.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jibrin Barau expressed
hope that the strike would be resolved next week, as stated by the
minister, so students can return to school.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/fg-asuu-meeting-deadlocked-postponed-till-next-week/