Stalemate as ASUU insists it won’t accept IPPIS in meeting with Buhari

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday stuck to its guns, insisting on its rejection of the enrollment of its members in the Federal Government Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

The meeting, which had the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu; Minister of Finance/Budget/National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed; Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige; and the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, present, held at the instance of ASUU.

President Buhari, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, called on the university lecturers to embrace IPPIS, promising increased funding of the university level to enable it to deliver on its mandate of providing quality education.

“The President urged members of ASUU to assist the Federal Government in realising the target of improved education and credible certificates by complying with ongoing verification and validation of human resources in the universities, which will guarantee optimum output,” the statement said.

The statement added that the finance minister advised ASUU at the session to encourage its remaining 40,926 members to comply with the IPPIS, claiming that over 70 percent (over 90,000) of the members of ASUU had enrolled for IPPIS.

“The minister pointed out that many anomalies were discovered in the university structures that have contributed to the increased cost burden, which include staff working and earning pay in more than one university, contract staff on payroll of the government, tax reductions on PAYEE and multiple employments,” the statement added.

The statement also indicated that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, “urged ASUU to comply with the IPPIS in national interest as his office was already in the process of streamlining all issues of human resources in government.”

On the ASUU side, the Presidency statement revealed that ASUU opposed the IPPIS at the meeting, arguing that the government’s visitation policy to the universities was enough accountability process as against the IPPIS.

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ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi was also said to have disputed the figures reeled by the minister of finance saying he was surprised she could give those figures.

“On IPPIS and university operations, Prof. Ogunyemi said the Federal Government’s visitor initiative to the universities, at least once in five years, was the best guarantee for monitoring accountability processes that include internal and external audit processes.

“The ASUU president said the IPPIS would be a ‘disruptive intrusion’ that violates the laws of the federation, violates university statutes, and violates agreements between the Federal Government and ASUU.’

“The government should welcome ASUU’s ongoing innovation of a robust system of human resources management and compensation, called the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which will address peculiarities of universities and end inappropriate recruitment,” the Presidency quoted ASUU as saying.

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