ASUU: How UTAS failed integrity tests – NITDA

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on Thursday explained how the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) proposed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for payment of its members’ salaries failed three integrity tests.

ASUU had proposed the UTAS as an alternative to the Integrated Personnel Payment and Information System (IPPIS) preferred by the Federal Government.

The NITDA’s Director of Information Infrastructure, Usman Abdulahi, spoke during a meeting between the leadership of the House of Representatives and some agencies of the government on the ongoing ASUU strike.

Those at the meeting held at the National Assembly complex were the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, Acting Accountant-General of the Federation, Okolieaboh Sylva, Director- General of the National Income Salaries and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta and NITDA.

Abdulahi said the UTAS failed the integrity on three occasions, while IPPIS failed one.

READ ALSO: ASUU insists strike continues until Nigerian govt implements UTAS

He said: “In the first test, the system (UTAS) failed. The system could not meet the requirement. It was communicated to ASUU, the full report was submitted directly to ASUU. The second report was submitted through the office of the

“In the assessment we did in March this year, we spent two weeks carrying out the assessment in the presence of observers. At the end of the exercise, UTAS failed the due diligence test. Of course, ASUU agreed to work on the solution and resubmit for assessment.

“Until when the President’s Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari, convened the tripartite committee when the third test was ordered. In the third round, we were asked to conduct the test on three payment systems – UTAS 2020, U3PS by SSANU and NASU, and IPPIS. The report is the outcome of the assessment we did. In this report, we have criteria. None of the solutions met NITDA criteria.”

He said NITDA did not conduct any test on IPPIS when it was launched because at the time the platform was introduced, the agency had no mandate to conduct integrity tests on solution platforms.

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