THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has explained why it rejected two payment platforms of the federal government and insisted on University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which it created as an alternative.
ASUU had rejected the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), a platform the Federal Government uses to pay no fewer than 789,000 of its workers in various sectors of the economy. ASUU members are also currently on the platform.
The union had also rejected Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS), the platform the Federal Government recently approved that ASUU payment should transit to, with effect from November
In an exclusive interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday, in Abuja, the ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said that the union’s stance is in line with the autonomy of the nation’s tertiary institutions.
Osodeke said that ASUU’s planned strike notice over the payment platform and other issues was still standing but the union had only given the government space to conclude on the new renegotiation committee that was set up. According to him, UTAS conforms to the statutory provision that the university’s finances should be managed by its Governing Council.
“ASUU’s position is that the finances of the university should be managed by the Governing Council. That’s what the law says. It is not said by the Accountant General’s office.
”Every year, the governing council directs the Vice Chancellor to defend its budget at the National Assembly. When the budget is approved including salary, remuneration, overhead, it will go to the President for assent and it becomes a law.
”That money should be released to the Governing council to pay its staff members. That is the autonomy of the university we are talking about, as stipulated in the law,” he said
Osodeke stressed that the universities should be given autonomy, to be able to plan for its staff members’ recruitment and how to pay their salaries.
He recalled that the Union rejected IPPIS because its implementation not only erodes university’s autonomy but meddles with its internal affairs and violates Section 24A of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2003.
Osodeke also faulted the recent guidelines by the Federal Government detailing the process for the formal exit of Federal Tertiary Institutions (FTIs) from IPPIS.
In a circular issued on Oct. 8, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, said the payroll for FTIs in the month of October 2024 will still be processed on the IPPIS platform.
She added that, starting from November, the payrolls will be processed by the institutions themselves and then be checked by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation’s (OAGF)’s IPPIS department.
