Still On ASUU, FG’s Imbroglio

Again, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, last week, threatened to mobilise its members for a
nationwide strike if the Federal Government stops the salaries of lecturers for resisting enrolment on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The union, this time claimed that its experts had designed a “unique prototype of the IPPIS for the university system named, University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which it urged the Federal Government to implement in universities instead of the IPPIS.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, the ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said the UTAS designed by a team of crack software engineers, who are based in the Nigerian universities, unlike the IPPIS, would address the uniqueness of the university system, particularly the flexibility of the payroll and personnel management.
He alleged that the attempt to impose enrolment in the IPPIS on university lecturers by the Federal Government was a plot to distract the union from the ongoing 2009 agreement renegotiation.
The Tide still disagrees with ASUU’s argument on IPPIS. In fact, ASUU’s peculiarities are in a way different from those of MDAs such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), military, police, para-military agencies, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), among others, with the Constitution and special laws providing for their autonomy, which had since enrolled into IPPIS.
We are indeed, aware that IPPIS, a World Bank recommended tool, took off in 2007 with key goals to ensure effective and efficient management of Federal Government staff records; timely and accurate payment of salaries and wages of employees; deduction of taxes and other third-party dues, remittance of payroll deductions to third parties; and the enrolment of employees into IPPIS database; in addition to helping government in development planning; management of payroll budget and appropriate control of personnel cost. Its features include the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), among others.
We reckon that the first phase of implementation of TSA in 217 MDAs in 2012 helped government save about N500 billion, thus encouraging its implementation across board. And between 2015 and July, 2019, about N10 trillion have been saved through the blockage of leakages in government finances; more than 20, 000 unnecessary bank accounts operated by MDAs closed; over N45 billion in monthly interest on borrowings from banks saved; and about N50 billion revenue stranded in different accounts mopped up.
On the other hand, PICA has eliminated 50,000 ghost workers, and enabled government save N76 billion in 2017 and N130 billion in 2018 from bloated workers’ emoluments, thus, allowing for employment of 70, 000 new civil servants. Besides, with well over 512 MDAs with more than 740,000 workers captured, it is clear that IPPIS would give government the window to budget and plan for its workers with precision and efficiency, and also inject transparency, accountability and probity in the expenditure of scarce public funds. Also, CPS has reformed pension administration and made it more transparent and efficient, with over N5 trillion in capital base.
We are surprised that ASUU, which had hitherto bandied itself as advocate for good governance, transparency and accountability in the management of public funds, is kicking against a system designed to guarantee just that. We like to remind ASUU that even at state levels, most governments across the country have been conducting biometric exercises since 2007, and between 2015 and now, some governors have implemented more than three biometrics exercises for all government workers, including academic staff of state universities to facilitate a state-wide database of government workers for effective budgeting and development planning. And we are not aware that such biometric exercises have affected their ability to receive salaries, Earned Academic Allowances, or access to retirement benefits, among others.
Perhaps, ASUU should know that the government needs to have a database of all its employees for adequate budgeting and future development plans, including infrastructure projects across the education sector, the universities inclusive.
ASUU should also know that for government to guarantee regular flow of funds and adequate personnel management while at the same time meeting other ancillary commitments, it needs to have a clear understanding of what is on the ground, challenges facing them and prospects, going forward. IPPIS provides the launch pad for that while checking corruption and sharp practices in the system.
This is why we consider as baseless ASUU’s position that the introduction of IPPIS is not backed by law, just as its introduction into federal universities will only compound the problem of regular flow of fund and personnel management. If ASUU believes that IPPIS’ “objectives include centralisation of payroll systems of the government, facilitating easy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel records for administrative purposes and pension processing”, then it should have no problem with the initiative.
We, therefore, advise ASUU to have a rethink on its stance so that the tertiary education sector of the country will not futher if battered.
For us, IPPIS provides that meeting point! This is why we say ‘No’ to another ASUU strike this time around, and urge it not to walk back its suspension of any industrial action over IPPIS. This remains our stand!