Suspend IPPIS- ASUU demands

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), of Federal University of Otuoke, has called on the Federal Government for the suspension of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). Alleging that payment of lecturers salaries and some members of staff have suffered from either short-payment or non-payment of their due salaries.

ASUU in a statement issued in Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State said that the IPPIS has made a mess of the university remuneration system as lecturers hardly know what their actual salaries are supposed to be paid nowadays, And this has created a challenge and made it almost impossible for lecturers to participate in sabbaticals, adjuncts and any other exchange programs.

In the statement signed by the Chairperson, Dr Socrates Ebo, the ASUU also demands the immediate deployment of University Transparency and Accountability Software (UTAS), a homegrown software, which serves as an integrity test, if passed with excellent grades enables the payment of salaries in Federal Universities.

Further more a recent report released by the Auditor-General of the Federation has shown that IPPIS is faulted with gross loopholes which has caused the Federal Government to lose billions of naira to sharp practices, gross misconduct and inefficiency, and this has led to some lecturers salaries not paid for many months or they end up receiving incomplete salaries.

Among ASUU’s demands state governments should stop establishing universities like constituency projects they are not willing to fund.
ASUU statement reads, “months after the seeming conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, the government has engaged in a game of ‘hide and seek’ in utter bad faith just to dodge having to sign the agreement. and this has become so bad that some some lecturers find it very difficult to take care of their domestic responsibilities. An average student in Nigerian university does not wish to become a lecturer due to poor salary remuneration and this cannot continue because like every other sector, lecturers deserve a living wage and a reasonable budget allocation should be made to the Education sector.

“ASUU further complained about The government giving ASUU a bad name in other to misrepresent it before the public. Where has ASUU gone wrong in any of these demands? Where has ASUU shown selfishness? Why is the government leaving strike as the only option available to us? We have been patient with the government and eneough is enough. We have shown understanding. Yet the government keeps treating us in bad faith. Nigerians should blame the government for any disruption in the academic calendar as the result of inconsistent payment as ASUU is not to blame in any way.”