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…Raises concern on funding
By Bimbola Oyesola,[email protected]
It may not yet be respite for universities and other tertiary institutions in the country exempted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information Systems (IPPIS), as the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has raised concerns about funding of the institutions.
The Federal Government, at the last Federal Executive Council (FEC), approved the removal of the tertiary institutions from IPPIS, allowing the schools to deal with the salary issues of their staff internally as well as recruitment of personnel.
General-secretary of NASU, Peter Adeyemi, in an interview with Daily Sun Workforce, said it was cheering news, but the implementation may not come as easily as it sounds.
“It came to us as a cheering news, but we are just waiting on how the government will implement it. We still need to have a clearer picture. Government has not told us about the effective date,” he said.
Adeyemi said the union would want the government to be more explicit and lay all the payment procedure on the table, bearing in mind that the process of payment have been taken off from the institutions.
He noted that the payment structure has been taken off from the institutions and the universities would have to revert back to their councils.
He said, “Not as simple as ABC, the universities have to be funded and we should not forget that this is a festive period, salary has to be paid early. How are all these going to be done so that our members would not suffered unduly. We want clearer clarification.”
The Labour leader however commended the federal government for taking the initiative, which he said was long overdue.
He said NASU and other unions in the educational sector have complained the inefficiency of IPPIS riddled with corruption as their members have continued to suffer untold hardships in the payment of their salary.
“It was ill-prepared when it commenced, laced with some irregularities, only few unions in the tertiary institutions that embraced it.
“We were told that it will eliminate corruption, hence we say that we will support but were taken back because it was a great disaster.”
Adeyemi said government decision was timely, as it was part of the union’s resolution at its just concluded Delegate Conference to take its members out of the IPPIS payment system.
On the autonomy to recruit without
the burden of obtaining approval and waiver from the Office of the Head of Service, the NASU General Secretary said this has never been an issue, stating that it could only strengthening the universities more.
“But the problem here is funding and resources, the universities are not being funded adequately. If they have the power to recruit, which they all have the facilities and opportunities and have been doing that for long, but where is the fund to pay the workers? The government needs to see to the funding of the universities,” he stressed.
Background
The Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman Tahir, while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Council Chamber, presidential villa in Abuja
has said FEC took the decision to remove the institutions from the system because of its concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
According to the Minister, apart from the opposition to the payment system by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the IPPS issue had proved time consuming for university vice chancellors, “dragging the efficiency of the management of the institutions.”
The minister explained that as the tertiary institutions are governed by laws, they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.
The IPPIS also had been a major issue between the university lecturers under the umbrella of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2020, ASUU, went on strike for eight-month strike due to disputes with the Federal Government as a result of the payment platform and opted for the University Transparency Account System (UTAS).
The IPPIS was introduced by the federal government in October 2006 as part of its reform initiatives to effectively store personnel records and promote transparency and accountability.
