Uche Usim, Abuja

 

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Idris Ahmed has revealed that the federal government saved over N273 billion from personnel cost between 2017 and 2018 after introducing the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).

He made the disclosure in a statement, even he urged the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to come onboard the platform as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari to all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). According to him, ASUU has no justification to reject IPPIS, especially as the policy aims at saving cost and wastages in the personnel cost of government.

Ahmed said: “After the practical demonstration on IPPIS, it was only ASUU through their national leadership who questioned the legality of IPPIS and federal government to pay salary directly to their members in the face of their autonomy.

“It is heartening to note that, the other three unions namely; NAAT, NASU and SSANU publicly hailed the payroll demonstration and accepted to join IPPIS immediately and promised to ensure that all their members get enrolled into the IPPIS and have since been working assiduously to this effect.

Related News

“Despite the practical demonstration, ASUU has continued to mislead their members and the public for any other reason best known to them alone.  The university community, based on their level of knowledge, experience, academic and research, one would have expected them to be in the forefront of championing any policy that is geared towards accountability and transparency in government expenditure.

“Instead, ASUU is threatening to go to court for an injunction against as IPPIS and government as well as use propaganda to misinform their members and the public and also to denigrate this lofty policy of the Federal Government which has achieved savings of over N273billion ( Two hundred and seventy three billion naira)  from personnel cost between 2017 and 2018.

“There are established rules and procedures on engagement of contract staff, casual workers, NYSC, consultancy etc and modalities for their payments.  These are not full-time employment and therefore are not a payroll matter which ASUU hinged their opposition to IPPIS on”, he explained.

Recall that ASUU had mobilized its members for a showdown with the government for mandating lecturers to come onboard IPPIS.

The Chairman, ASUU University of Ibadan Chapter, Professor Deji Omole, had said the union was not against accountability but will resist attempts by the government to violate existing laws and autonomy of the university. According to Omole, ASUU has offered to help the federal government design the appropriate template that will factor in the peculiarities of university lecturers in the IPPIS but the government seems bent on using the World-Bank designed exploitative template. The ASUU boss said the template designed by government looks a blueprint meant to enslave intellectuals because it does not make provisions for payment of arrears of promotion, study leave allowance, and responsibility allowance, among others.