The Academy Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says it strongly believes the introduction of Integrated Payroll and Personnel System (IPPIS) into Federal Universities will compound the problem of regular flow of fund and personnel management. It called the system a scam, not backed by law.

President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, made this known during a courtesy visit to the President of the Senate Sen. Ahmad Lawan in Abuja on Monday.

“The introduction of IPPIS is not backed by law. The Union’s position is that there are extant legal provisions and negotiated agreements arising from the nature and peculiarities of Nigerian universities, which make IPPIS unnecessary and inapplicable to the universities.’’.

He said that the goal of IPPIS according to the Accountant-General of the Federation was to ensure transparency, accountability and probity with specific objectives.

“The objectives include centralisation of payroll systems of the Federal Government, facilitating easy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pension processing.

Ogunyemi said “the proposed forceful enrollment of staff of universities in the IPPIS would amount to subjecting the universities to the direction and control of Office of Account General of the Federation ( OAGF) with respect to the payment of staff remuneration, salaries and wages.

“It should be noted that IPPIS is not a home-grown initiative; rather it is a prescription of the World Bank.

“Its ultimate consequence is to create anarchy and therefore, retard the growth and development of Nigeria’’.

He said that if the government wanted to curb corrupt practices through the payroll and personnel management, the best pathway was to make the Governing Councils work.

“The exercise of the power of the Visitor, in respect of the visitation exercise as explicitly stated in law which ASUU has continued to advocate, should be activated.

“Nigerian universities have capacity to develop their own platform in place of IPPIS with different levels of control which can be accessed periodically to assess compliance with the regulations on transparency and accountability by each university’’,  he said.

In his remark, Lawal  said:“we are all in this together and we believe that the Nigerian education sector especially the tertiary needs serious support.

“We know that you have made some sacrifices and that you have put in your best with the little given to you.

“The legislature is always prepared to take necessary steps to ensure that the tertiary institutions remain open and functional.

“I’m happy that you have made your point and I’m also happy that the federal Ministry of Finance is thinking of addressing the issues as well.

“I will like to know how they intend to do it. I’m meeting with the Minister of Finance to tell us what exactly is to be done because we do not want any strike’’.

The president of the senate further said that the truth was that there was poor funding but the National Assembly would do its best at this stage.