Salary: Buhari’s directive on IPPIS does not affect us — ASUU

ASUU wants FG’s visitation panel to halt crises in Universities Striking university teachers say they are not affected by President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive that only federal workers on Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System would be paid salaries.

The President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, made the claim in an interview with the NAN in Abuja.

Buhari, while presenting the 2021 Budget at a Joint Session of the National Assembly on Thursday, said only federal workers captured by the IPPIS would continue to receive salaries.

He ordered all federal workers to enrol into the IPPIS platform, declaring that it was meant to check fraud, including the payment of salaries to non-existent personnel.

He said the platform would also check the payment of unauthorised allowances.

But Ogunyemi, while reacting to the President’s directive, said the workers referred to were civil servants.

He said: “The directive was meant for civil servants.

“University academics are not civil servants.

“We have an understanding with government to develop an alternative platform, which would be sensitive to the operations of the university and accommodate its peculiarities.

“The platform we are developing will also respect the autonomy of our universities as obtained globally.

“The idea of seeking clearance from the Head of Service or the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation is alien to university operations because it will halt its flexibility.

“The University Miscellaneous (Provisions) (Amendment) Act (2003), which government gazetted as University Autonomy Act (2007), has vested the powers of personnel and payroll system issues in the hands of each university’s Governing Council.”

Ogunyemi added that ASUU on January 9, 2019 reached an understanding with President Buhari to develop its proposed University Transparency and Accountability Solution for testing and adoption for managing personnel information and payroll system in the universities.

He said: “We have since done that and presented to the Federal Ministry of Education.

“What is left is to present to other major stakeholders, particularly in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

“The development of UTAS was done at no cost to government.