FG to incorporate UTAS peculiarities into IPPIS within 3 months ― AGF

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3 years ago

Federal Government on Monday assured the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of its readiness to incorporate the peculiarities of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) within three months.

The Acting Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Sylva Okolieaboh gave the assurance in Abuja, during the follow-up tripartite meeting on the ASUU strike, held at the instance of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

While commending the Speaker for the meeting, Mr Okolieaboh assured that oAGF will sit down with ASUU and look at the peculiarities in order to factor it into the IPPIS.

Mr. Okolieaboh who tasked ASUU to allow the issue to be laid to rest in the interest of the students said: “we need to have comprehensive peculiarities list of ASUU and in three months we should be able to clear this.

“We will sit down with ASUU and look at what could be done and the material peculiarities that ASUU was complaining about.

“For the past 20 years, all I do in the AoGF was reform. I want the leadership of ASUU to please trust us and with the commitment of the National Assembly and Executive, IPPIS will live up to expectations,” he assured.

He said contrary to insinuation on the vulnerability of the IPPIS payment system, Mr Okolieaboh maintained that PPIS was designed locally by Oracle and remained the best at the moment, adding that whatever agreement it had with Oracle was a normal agreement.

Speaking earlier, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke who argued that the agreement to be paid through the IPPIS was an interim arrangement, maintained that IPPIS could not accommodate the union’s peculiarities demand.

He said the Union would revert to its demand to be paid through the UTAS, adding that what the union agreed on UTAS and IPPIS was a temporary measure.

Professor Osodeke said that the Union had agreed on IPPIS as an interim measure and subsequently would demand its payment through the UTAS platform which was developed by the union.

He said the IPPIS had not solved any problem and the union was willing to take the IPPIS as an interim, adding that anytime the AGF was willing it would be ready to meet as an interim measure.

“There is no way IPPIS can represent the universities, the greatest problem university has is funding. No university can invest again because of Treasury Single Account(TSA).”

He said the Union called off the strike based on trust, adding that the country’s education was in dire need of human resources and if it did another NEEDS assessment, it would be worse than what it had in the past.

“If there is a problem in the payment you challenge the university to produce one. We were challenged in 2020 by the Minister of Labour and we produced it.

“In a normal country when there is a problem you go to the university to develop and not to go outside,” he said.

In his remarks, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said on the demand by ASUU to have a written agreement, he said, if we now have a written agreement then where is the trust, that shows it negates our resolution.

According to him, “if there is no trust, I won’t call for a follow-up on the execution of what we have agreed.

“Yes, you may have issues on IPPIS and this is what we are trying to address by bringing in UTAS into IPPIS so that we will not have issues. The agreement wasn’t a stopgap measure but to bring UTAS to IPPIS.”

On the issue of funding, the Speaker who argued that ASUU’s fear had been addressed in the 2023 budget, disclosed that about N500 billion was included for ASUU in the budget.

“I have written to the Ministry of Finance on the panel report. We are taking this one at a time. I don’t want us to go back.

“A lot has been achieved and you have been committed enough to go back to the classroom and we will continue to work based on trust.

The Speaker however demanded a timeline that would be acceptable to ASUU to accommodate the peculiarities of ASUU in the IPPIS.

He pleaded with the union to let bygone be bygone, adding that by January and February the AGF had promised that everything would be sorted.

He said that it was up to ASUU to submit its peculiarities to the AoGF so that the issue could be addressed pronto.

Hon. Gbajabiamila said that the House of reps would be having a Summit on Universities and all the issues raised by ASUU as to funding were slated to be addressed for a long-term solution.

He said the summit was slated for 22nd November, 2022 and ASUU and other critical stakeholders would be at the summit for a permanent solution.

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