Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President. [aitonline]
During a courtesy visit by the President of Asuu, Prof, Biodun Ogunyemi to the Senate President, Sen. Ahmad Lawan, in Abuja, Prof Biodun states why the Integrated Payroll and Personnel System (IPPIS) into Federal Universities will alloy the problem of flow of fund and personnel management.
He further expounded:
“The introduction of IPPIS is not backed by law. The Union’s position is that there are extant legal provisions and negotiated agreements arising from the nature and peculiarities of Nigerian universities, which make IPPIS unnecessary and inapplicable to the universities.’’.
He said that the goal of IPPIS according to the Accountant-General of the Federation was to ensure transparency, accountability and probity with specific objectives.
The objectives include centralisation of payroll systems of the Federal Government, facilitating easy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pension processing.”
Ogunyemi said “the proposed forceful enrollment of staff of universities in the IPPIS would amount to subjecting the universities to the direction and control of Office of Account General of the Federation ( OAGF) concerning the payment of staff remuneration, salaries and wages.
“It should be noted that IPPIS is not a home-grown initiative; rather it is a prescription of the World Bank.
“Its ultimate consequence is to create anarchy and therefore, retard the growth and development of Nigeria’’.
He said that if the government wanted to curb corrupt practices through the payroll and personnel management, the best pathway was to make the Governing Councils work.
“The exercise of the power of the Visitor, in respect of the visitation exercise as explicitly stated in law which ASUU has continued to advocate, should be activated.
“Nigerian universities can develop their platform in place of IPPIS with different levels of control which can be accessed periodically to assess compliance with the regulations on transparency and accountability by each university’’, he said.
In his remark, Lawal said: “We are all in this together and we believe that the Nigerian education sector especially the tertiary needs serious support.
“We know that you have made some sacrifices and that you have put in your best with the little given to you.
“The legislature is always prepared to take necessary steps to ensure that the tertiary institutions remain open and functional.
While the Presidency had this to say on his twitter timeline:
@toluogunlesi: 1) As long as the salaries being paid to ASUU are from @NigeriaGov ASUU should not be able to dictate what system will be used to pay that money, no?
2) ASUU president says a centralized payment system liable to being hacked. Not a very strong anti-IPPIS argument, is it?.
1. As long as the salaries being paid to ASUU are from @NigeriaGov ASUU should not be able to dictate what system will be used to pay that money, no?
2. ASUU president says a “centralized” payment system liable to being hacked. Not a very strong anti-IPPIS argument, is it?
— tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) October 29, 2019
Source: Pulse.ng, Twitter.