No going back on Oct. deadline, FG tells ASUU – TheNigerialawyer

* Why we’re against it – Lecturers

The Federal Government says the October deadline it gave all
ministries, departments and agencies of government to enrol in the
Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System stands.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, in a
statement yesterday, described the ASUU’s opposition to the
compulsory migration of all federal government staff to the IPPIS
as an “open endorsement of corruption”.

He stated: “ASUU opposition to IPPIS is an open endorsement to
corruption in the Nigeria University system as the IPPIS platform
will not allow employment of workers at will without compliance to
due process on employment.”

He noted that the IPPIS, a policy of government for which
President Muhammadu Buhari directed that all MDAs drawing their
salary from Consolidated Revenue Funds should join by the end of
October 2019, was aimed at saving costs and wastages.

The AGF, who said other unions in the universities, had
complied, advised ASUU to do same before the deadline.

He said: “To meet the deadline of government, the process of
enrolment is on-going; we, therefore, urge all university staff to
ensure they enrol on to the IPPIS platform.

“It is a known practice all over the world that employees are
entitled to their salaries and wages as at when due. That
notwithstanding, there is nowhere employees dictate to their
employers as to how he or she should be paid as being dictated by
ASUU.”

Meanwhile, ASUU President Biodun Ogunyemi yesterday said “the
IPPIS is a scam as it creates more problems than it solves”.

Ogunyemi, at a meeting met with the Senate leadership said the
IPPIS would undermine universities’ autonomy and infringe on
academic freedom.

He said with the recent experiences of other MDAs that
implemented the IPPIS, vis-à-vis the peculiar nature of
universities, ASUU members across different universities had
reservations about the imposition of the IPPIS on them.

“One of the biggest challenges of IPPIS is that it poses a great
threat to our national security. The system is not strategic for a
sovereign nation in a world system where almost all countries are
vulnerable to sabotage by international cyber criminals and
states.

“Once such sabotage happens, the entire country would be plunged
into confusion and dysfunction. This has happened before and can
happen again.

“It will constitute an impediment in the way of the ability of
the universities to provide staff for new programmes as well as
replace staff. This is because new staff members cannot be paid
salaries until they are enrolled into the IPPIS database, which
will take months to actualize.

“The IPPIS system only recognizes staff members that are on
permanent and pensionable appointments. Universities are universal
in outlook in terms of recruitment of staff and student intake.

According to him, “the IPPIS restricts the ability of
universities to employ much needed staff at short notice. Such
staff, when recruited, may not be paid until cleared by the Office
of the Accountant General of the Federation, thus creating avenues
of corruption.

“The dynamism associated with staff recruitment will become
cumbersome with the introduction of IPPIS. Lecturers in Colleges/
Faculties of Medicine serving as honorary consultants in teaching
hospitals and consultants serving as honorary lecturers would face
problems collecting their proper remunerations, as it is currently
the case with some allowances of our members in Basic Medical
Sciences.

“The IPPIS is designed in such a way that outsourced services
such as cleaning and security, casual workers, NYSC, etc. cannot be
captured.

“The IPPIS platform does not allow for deductions from staff
salaries arising from legally sanctioned union and cooperative
society activities. This will directly infringe on the
constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right of staff to
association.”

Senate President Ahmad Lawan said: “My worry has always been why
government will sign agreements that they know are difficult and
sometimes impossible to implement. I’m meeting with the Minister of
Finance to tell us what exactly is to be done because we do not
want any strike”.

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