ASUU Strike
Dr U.D. Chima
Chairperson, ASUU UniPort.
Some
months ago a report released by Nigeria's Auditor-General of the
Federation (AGoF) unequivocally stated that the operation of the Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is fraught with fraud and has
cost the Federal Government (FG) billions of naira. Few weeks after the release
of the report of the AGoF on IPPIS, the Head of Service of the
Federation, raised an alarm exposing the fraud that characterize IPPIS when she
publicly declared that over 500 ghost workers were discovered on IPPIS. Just
last night, the same FG started praising IPPIS alleging that it has helped to
save billions of naira by eliminating ghost workers despite the recent outburst
of the Head of Service of the Federation that IPPIS is a den of ghost workers.
What a paradox!
This
unconscionable equivocation and prevarication by the FG is simply an
unfortunate and unconscionable ploy to promote IPPIS which is currently
undergoing integrity test for the first time despite several years of its
adoption and deployment.
The
Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is a payment
platform developed and sold to the Nigerian Government by foreigners for the
payment of salaries of her employees.
The
payment platform (IPPIS) was forced on the the Federal universities for the
payment of workers' salaries in February 2020 despite the fact that ASUU had
warned that it will further exacerbate the deplorable condition of our Federal
universities. Since the forceful deployment of the IPPIS for payment of salaries
in Federal universities, there has been so much pandemonium as staff are
arbitrarily omitted from the payroll; third-party deductions for staff welfare
are not done in some cases or done and withheld; adjunct, visiting and
sabbatical placements are almost impossible; employment of lecturers can no
longer be done without approval from the Head of Service and the
Account-General of the Federation.
Following
the shortcomings and the loopholes that characterize IPPIS as identified by
ASUU ab initio, ASUU in agreement with the FG developed an alternative payment
software/platform- UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution)
which captures the peculiarities of the University System, at no cost to the
Federal Government.
It is
very unfortunate that the FG has continued to use IPPIS for the payment of
universities' staff salaries despite the humongous irregularities and fraud
that characterize it, instead of giving ASUU a pat on the back for providing a
solution via indigenous technology.
As I
write, not less than 20 academic staff in UniPort are being omitted from the
IPPIS since the last 2 to 27 months, for no fault of theirs. One of us who was
unjustifiably dismissed from service in 2017 has not been recaptured on IPPIS
two years after his recall since 2020. At the moment, he is being owed salaries
for over 54 months. These staff have families and several financial
responsibilities, and this ugly situation cuts across Federal universities in
Nigeria.
The
arrears of the minimum wage consequential adjustment that the FG announced that
it paid the workers in Federal universities about five weeks ago was so messed
up that over 1000 staff of the University of Port Harcourt are yet to be paid
five weeks after the deceptive announcement The payment was messed up via the
same IPPIS that the FG is praising now. When they first made the payment about
five weeks ago, over half of the staff in UniPort did not receive payment. It
was learnt that the original list submitted by the University for the payment
was messed up by the operators of the IPPIS to the extent that names of persons
that have nothing to do with UniPort appeared on it. The shameful display of
incompentence on the side of the operators of the ineffective payment platform
was not restricted to the University of Port Harcourt alone. Chairpersons of
different branches of ASUU confirmed similar ugly incident in varying degrees.
Staff
of some specialised universities especially the Universities of Agriculture
were completely omitted; not a single staff was paid.
Just about a week ago, an attempt to pay the numerous workers omitted from the first payment exposed further the irregularities that define the IPPIS. Majority of those who were paid when the first payment was made, were paid again while many of those not paid initially were completely omitted. What is currently ongoing is an attempt to clear their poo poo. A 'lien' has been placed on the affected accounts with those that have not been paid left despondent and at the mercy of reversals and recoveries from those accounts that were credited twice by the operators of the almighty IPPIS.
Now that FG has started
praising the IPPIS despite its condemnation by the Auditor-General of the
Federation and the Head of Service few months ago, and the palpable
inefficiency, irregularities and loopholes that characterize it, perhaps it
will score above 100 percent after the ongoing integrity test so that it can be
rated above UTAS that scored 99.3 percent after the second integrity test that
the FG subjected it to.
What a
country! We are curiously watching.
25/06/2022
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