Daybreak, Politics, Entertainment, Sport

Tag: IPPIS

  • IPPIS unsuitable for varsity system, says JAMB registrar

    IPPIS unsuitable for varsity system, says JAMB registrar

    By Becky Adi

    The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System as the payment platform for university employees is unsuitable for the Nigerian university system.

    The former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, who categorically stated that he was not a fan of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, said the union had a point to fight for regarding their pay.

    Oloyede said this during a virtual lecture titled ‘Synchronising cacophony: Interrogating some issues of concepts and perception in the Nigerian higher education topology,’ held in honour of a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Peter Okebukola, to mark his 71st birthday.

    He said, “I am not a fan of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, but they have a point here. IPPIS is unsuitable for the university system.

    “Let me cite an instance, when I was the VC at the University of Ilorin, I went to Australia on an official assignment and there I met a Nigerian with PhD in an area of Botany where we lacked the manpower.

    “I spoke with the man and convinced him of the need to work with us and he agreed. Immediately, I put a call to the Dean of the Faculty of Science and told him about the development and that was how we secured the services of the man. He is now a professor in one of the nation’s universities.”

    In the lecture, Oloyede also called for moderation in the setting up of universities by government agencies noting that there were institutions already created which could cater to the training of other agencies.

    He added that the government should instead focus on the adequate funding of the already existing universities in the country.

    “Also, we must be careful of the number of universities we are having, especially the ones being set up by government agencies and the military.

    “We already have the Nigerian Defence Academy which trains officers for all the arms of the military. We also have the Police Academy that trains police officers, it can also help in training para-military men too.

    “In that regard, we don’t need more than one or two. If care is not taken, we will soon have the ‘University of Road Safety’ or the ‘University of Civil Defence’. Adequately funding existing universities should be our focus,” Oloyede added.

  • Some Professors received N8,000 as salary – ASUU maintains position on IPPIS

    Some Professors received N8,000 as salary – ASUU maintains position on IPPIS

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has maintained its position on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System of the Federal Government.

    ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi who shared the stance of the union on the IPPIS during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday October 29, blamed the payment platform for the alleged irregularities in the payment of salaries and allowances of lecturers. He also disclosed that some Professors received N8,000 as salaries. 

    Ogunyemi said; 

    “The issue of what we call amputated salary came into it because the IPPIS platform was not designed for the university system.

    “So, the platform does not recognise negotiated agreements like we are talking about allowance – unacademic allowances, research journal, and other things.

    “In fact, there were professors that were paid like N8,000 in some months on our campuses. So, we don’t expect anything otherwise because that platform was not meant for the university system.”

    He stressed that the IPPIS cannot work for the university system especially in the area of taxation as lecturers were given one-line salary scale which means taxes are being deducted from allowances and that is not the case with those in the civil service.

    Ogunyemi averred that the programme was designed for the civil service as lecturers were losing as much as 50 to 70 percent of their salaries.

    When asked if lecturers are willing to return to classes despite the failure of ASUU and the government to reach a decisive conclusion, he said; 

    “I believe our students and their parents would understand.”

    “If we have lecturers that have not been paid for eight, nine months, how can we have that person putting in his or her best in a system?

    “If people are going back to the universities and they will be paid less of their usual salary, how can we cope with that?”

  • IPPIS: FG to consider UTAS as ASUU’s preferred payment platform – Ngige

    IPPIS: FG to consider UTAS as ASUU’s preferred payment platform – Ngige

    Indications emerged Tuesday night that the Federal Government may adopt the University Transparency Account System (UTAS), a payment platform developed by ASUU in preference to IPPIS.

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities has pushed for adoption of UTAS instead of Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which it insisted that they would never succumb.

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige told journalists after about two and half hours closed door meeting with the Senate leadership on Tuesday.

    He said the alternative platform presented by ASUU is home grown and worth given thorough assessment test.

    “We agreed at the meeting to give required consideration to the UTAS alternative they came up with as a way of finding lasting solution to the lingering crisis over Implementation of IPPIS.

    “We have neither jettisoned the implementation of the IPPIS nor fully accepted UTAS .The level we moved to now, is to subject ASUU’s UTAS to integrity test and in doing so, it will be presented to users like the office of Accountant General of the Federation on Wednesday .

    “After that it will be sent to National Information Technology Development Agency ( NITDA) and from there to the office of the National Security Adviser for second look .

     “The platform is an option grown device that requires stage by stage consideration and from the look of things is good “, he said

    Confirming the head way achieved at the meeting , the Chairman , Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and Tetfund, Senator Ahmed Baba Kaita, said the interface had not ended but a stage of compromise is getting closer between the two parties .

    “The meeting brokered by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan among the various stakeholders, achieved a lot today with agreement on the need to subject the UTAS alternative brought forward by ASUU for integrity test by all relevant departments of the government,” he said .

    The ASUU leadership though refused to speak to the press after the closed door meeting but were in good mood apparently due to consideration being given their alternative platform.

  • IPPIS: PENGASSAN begins 3-day strike

    IPPIS: PENGASSAN begins 3-day strike

    Some branches of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), on Wednesday, commenced a three-day warning strike to protest the “shoddy” manner their members were included in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Management System (IPPIS).

    The staff members representing the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) protested at PPPRA head office in Abuja, chanting solidarity songs.

    Mr. Kelechi Ugwulor, National Industrial Officer of PENGGASSAN, speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that the strike was informed by the clumsy manner in which the agencies were enrolled on the IPPIS.

    Ugwulor said that, though the union supports all government’s effort to achieve transparency and accountability in government, it should not be to the detriment of the oil workers.

    “We are concerned with the ways our members in some government agencies are being treated with respect to IPPIS.

    “In the month of September, our members in NNRA had huge sums of money deducted from their salaries, and we have decided that enough is enough.

    “We are not averse to instruments of transparency in this country. Any system that offers accountability to the governance of Nigeria we are in for it, but do not do injustice to our members,’’ he warned.

    Ugwulor vowed that the strike will continue until their grievances are addressed by the government.

    Also, Mr Efreke Udeme, NNRA Branch Chairman of PENGASSAN, said that `bastardisation’’ of staff salaries of the agencies concerned and non release of statutory allocation of some of the agencies were responsible for the action.

    He urged relevant government officials to address the issues as a matter of priority.

    “Salaries arrears from March 2015 to Dec. 2016 are also outstanding in NNRA,’’ he added.

    He admonished IPPIS to harmonise peculiarity allowances of all the agencies in their emoluments.

  • COVID-19: VCs conniving with IPPIS staff to rig appointments, promotions-ASUU

    COVID-19: VCs conniving with IPPIS staff to rig appointments, promotions-ASUU

    By Samuel Ogenyi, Uyo

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities,ASUU, Calabar Zone, on Monday raised the alarm that some Vice Chancellors are manipulating the processes of appointments and promotions in the University system.

    The Union emphasised that the affected VCs are conniving with the staff of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System,using the closure of Universities and the COVID-19 lockdown to achieve their plans.

    The chairman of the Calabar Zone of the Union, Dr Aniekan Anieka   Brown who stated this at a media briefing said the Union would stop at nothing to expose the fraud and invalidate products of any rigged process 

    ” You know there are procedures for appointments and promotions in the University system. The VCs are conniving with the IPPIS staffs to raise new sets of appointments for the universities, some of whose qualifications are in doubt.

    “It will shock you to note that in the face of the ongoing Industrial dispute by the Union, COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown and closure of schools (particularly, Universities), some VCs are rigging the processes of apppointments and promotions, in some cases with active connivance of staff of IPPIS. Our Union will expose such and stop at nothing in invalidating products of any rigged process.” Brown explained.
    The coordinator further stated that those clamouring for the reopening of Universities were doing so for selfish reasosn.

    ” The very impetus for this is to continually exploit Nigerians via fees. Regrettably,there is no evidence that the COVID-19 protocols and advisories will be enforced. One thing is obvious, they do not care about the safety and lives of Nigerians, all they care forms how to exploit the system for their personal benefits. They are capitalists. They are given to cupidity. With this we have blown the whistle.” He said.

    On the vest Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information  System, IPPIS, rejected byvthe union, Brown said the payroll system remained enemical to their growth and would not address the peculair needs of lecturers in the Universities.

    In grouse with the system which has led to more than seven months delay in payment of their salaries, ASUU said the system is fraudulent even as the union has provided an alternative to the managers of education and tertiary education in the country.

    It said that IPPIS only focused on the payroll and nothing on the personnel aspects which the alternative, the Universities Transperancy and Accountability Solution, UTAS has provided for.

    “UTAS has also accommodated the virtues and provisions of extant agreements between the government and the various staff unions. The ball is now on the court of the government to subject UTAS to requisite integrity tests as objectively as possible which our union has already done, to satisfy itself, we so challenge.” Brown maintained.

    It decried the indiscriminate setting up of Universities by state governments when earlier ones established by those state governments remained under funded adding that products of such systems remained a danger to the system.

  • IPPIS: SSANU expresses displeasure over irregularities in Feb. salaries payment

    IPPIS: SSANU expresses displeasure over irregularities in Feb. salaries payment

    The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has expressed strong displeasure over the irregularities witnessed in the payment of February salaries for its members using the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

    The Association expressed its view in a statement signed by Mr Salaam Olayiwola, SSANU National Public Relations Officer, and made available to newsmen on Monday in Abuja.

    According to Olayiwola, IPPIS is government payment platform, which we keyed into, with the understanding that the platform would greatly improve personnel accountability in the system thereby reducing the spate of corruption in our universities.

    “Kindly recall that we keyed into the IPPIS with an understanding that all the peculiarities in the University system, particularly pertaining to our members would be adequately addressed.

    “Also, especially the issues of allowances, appointments, increments and third party deductions among others.

    “Various concerns were raised and our fears were allayed through various correspondences, meetings and practical sessions where the application was displayed and all issues brought forward were addressed, ” he said.

    He explained that it was only after exhausting all queries and getting satisfactory answers that the union and its Joint Action Committee counterpart Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, decided to key into the platform in the overall interest of the system and its members.

    Olayiwola added that it was shocking to them that their first real taste of the IPPIS application was totally different from what was presented. All the concerns raised by their unions were not implemented and disregarded.

    He said apart from the breach of trust, which had now manifested, the members across the universities were groaning from various anomalies witnessed in their salaries thereby forcing them into great hardships “which they never bargained for when they keyed into the IPPIS.

    “As a leadership, this is totally unacceptable!

    “The recent development has once again shown, despite our attempts to test otherwise, that Government can never be trusted.

    “As such, based on what we have been subjected to with the February salary, we do not blame our lecturer counterparts, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), for resisting the IPPIS from the beginning.

    “It is on the strength of the above that we demand that the office of the Accountant General of the Federation reverts us to the GIFMIS platform, which was working seamlessly before IPPIS was introduced.

    “It is getting clearer that our trust in government and its agencies on the IPPIS issue was clearly misplaced, ” he said.

    He, however, added that an understanding had been reached with ASUU to integrate the ASUU proposed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the IPPIS.

    “While we place on record, the right of ASUU to reach an understanding with the government on this hybrid payment platform, we note that this can only be implemented for ASUU members as at today and if it is to be implemented across board.

    “It must be with the consent of the other university based unions;  having keyed into the IPPIS project and gotten an unsavory first taste, we shall not accept any other payment platform, which does not carry us along.

    “If UTAS is a general University payment platform, we must be guaranteed that its features accommodate the peculiar needs and challenges of the non-teaching staff in the system.

    “If this is not guaranteed, the hybrid application shall be rejected in totality by our members.

    “We demand that Government immediately looks into the anomalies witnessed in the February 2020 salary payments through the IPPIS platform and ensure rectification of these anomalies because the situation as at today cannot guarantee industrial peace in the system,” he said.(NAN)

  • Senate decries non provision of financial records of IPPIS by OAGF

    Senate decries non provision of financial records of IPPIS by OAGF

    The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday decried the failure of the Office of Accountant General of the Federation to present the 2015 Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) financial details to it for scrutiny.

    The committees reaction was sequel to questions posed to the Account General of the Federation (AGF), Idris Ahmed, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

    The Chairman of the Committee, Sen Matthew Urohidge (PDP Edo), had requested him to present the statement of Account and mandate of IPPIS to the Committee for vetting which  he failed to do.

    The Senate Committee on Public Accounts had requested the documents to assist it in its current probe of the queries raised by the office of the Auditor General for the Federation in his financial statement that raised a query for the Office of the Accountant General.

    The Accountant General was represented by  a Director in his office, Mr Adiro Emmanuel, who was unable to provide all the necessary documents pertaining to the IPPIS account put at N2.9 billion.

    Last week the Accountant General had told the Senate Panel that the documents were available on-line and that his office could make them available on demand.

    But on Tuesday his representative returned without the documents with an excuse that the Office of the Accountant General had requested the documents from the CBN.

    The office of the Accountant General was also unable to provide satisfactory response to why Nigeria’s revenue dropped drastically from N200 billion to N165 billion in 2015.

    On the query concerning the N596 billion Ecological Fund and why the fund was not invested to yield more money for Nigeria, the explanation of the representative of the Accountant General was deemed not quite satisfactory to the lawmakers.

    Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund in the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, Habiba Lawal, explained that the fund in question did not belong to the Federal Government alone.

    Unable to do anything substantial, the Senate Committee had to adjourn the meeting, while mandating the Accountant General of the Federation to within two weeks provide the documents and make himself available to the panel.(NAN)

  • IPPIS: Lawmaker, SUG boss advise FG against stopping lecturers’ salaries

    IPPIS: Lawmaker, SUG boss advise FG against stopping lecturers’ salaries

    A lawmaker, Dr Emma Ugwuerua, on Tuesday urged the Federal Government not to stop the salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who failed to enroll under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
    Ugwuerua, representing Nsukka West in Enugu State House of Assembly, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Nsukka on Tuesday, saying that the advice became necessary to avert a nationwide strike.
    He urged the government to further dialogue with ASUU over the unresolved issues concerning IPPIS.
    IPPIS is a department in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation responsible for the payment of salaries and wages directly to government employee’s bank accounts with appropriate deductions and remittances of third party payments.
    Federal government insisted ASUU members should enroll under the system to ensure deductions accruing to government were duly collected but ASUU argued that the enrollment would violate the university autonomy.
    Ugwuerua appealed to the government to consider the interest of students, who would be at the receiving end, should ASUU embark on an indefinite strike.
    “Government should avoid anything that will disrupt academic calendar in public universities.
    “Students will suffer because those who are supposed to graduate this year may not graduate while many will be idle at home,” he said.
    He urged the government to consider the security implication of a nationwide ASUU strike and do everything within its powers to avert the looming strike.
    He said the government should consider the point made by ASUU that members’ enrollment under IPPIS would violate university’s autonomy and explore other ways to resolve the problem.
    Also, the President, Students Union Government, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Mr Fortunatus Chimezie, urged the government to continue to negotiate with ASUU on the issue in order to avert the proposed strike.
    “It pains me that for any slightest provocation by government, ASUU will go on strike without considering the future and interest of students,” he said.
    Mrs Stella Urama, a retired principal of Urban Secondary School, Nsukka, said that incessant strikes in public universities were largely responsible for most half-baked graduates.
    “For quality of education to improve in public universities, government should avoid anything that will disrupt the academic calendar as well as give education sector the desired attention.
    “Some of our graduates are half-baked because whenever a strike is over, some universities hurriedly conduct exams for students without taking time to lecture them for the time lost during the strike.
    “Government should continue to dialogue with ASUU until the issue of IPPIS enrollment is amicably resolved,” she said. (NAN)

  • IPPIS: ASUU threatens `No Pay, No Work’ over FG plan to stop salaries of lecturers

    IPPIS: ASUU threatens `No Pay, No Work’ over FG plan to stop salaries of lecturers

    University lecturers have threatened a`No Pay, No Work’ action over the Federal Government’s plan to withhold the January salary of some of their colleagues who failed to enrol on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

    The lectures under aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) issued the threat in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

    The ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi , said a circular by the Federal Government calling for such step was uncalled for, as the union’s engagement with the  government on the issue was ongoing.

    Ogunyemi’s reaction was against the backdrop of a directive from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), asking the Finance Minister not to release funds meant for January salaries of lecturers yet to enrol on IPPIS.

    Cue in Audio

    “ ASUU has a resolution, that, should government go ahead to stop the salaries of our workers on the account of the IPPIS, we shall invoke our own resolution of “No Pay, No Work’’. So, that is where we stand.

    “We believed that we are engaging them and we believe they will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the aspect of our proposed alternative to IPPIS which we think will address the peculiarities.

    “But if that circular is true and they want to go ahead and stop the salaries of our workers, we shall react and respond appropriately.

    • Cue out audio
      The ASUU president also said that he felt that the meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari three weeks ago, was to find a common ground to integrate the two platforms.

    “We thought our meeting with Mr President as we understood is that we should meet and see where there are common grounds and see how we can integrate the two platforms, ‘’he said.

    The union had proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to address the peculiar cases of lecturers in the payment of salaries and other emoluments.

    A letter from the OAGF dated Jan. 23 requested the Minister of Finance and National Planning to stop the release of funds for the payment of January salary of affected academic staff. (NAN)