Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive that only federal workers on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) would be paid salaries does not affect them.
ASUU President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, made the claim in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja, said the President was referring to civil servants, noting that lecturers are not civil servants.
The President had said only federal workers captured by the IPPIS would continue to receive salaries while presenting the 2021 Budget at a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday.
He explained that the platform was meant to check fraud, including the payment of salaries to non-existent personnel. He said that the platform would also check the payment of unauthorised allowances.
READ ALSO: ASUU strike: Only workers on IPPIS will receive salaries – Buhari
But reacting to the President’s comments, Ogunyemi said, “The workers referred to were civil servants.
“The directive was meant for civil servants; university academics are not civil servants. We have an understanding with the government to develop an alternative platform which would be sensitive to the operations of the university and accommodate its peculiarities.
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“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.”
He noted that the union had reached an understanding with the President to develop its proposed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), for testing and adoption for managing personnel information and payroll system in the universities.
READ ALSO: ASUU strike: Nigerian public universities set to lose one academic session
“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 the government. We used contributions from the check-off deductions of ASUU members to finance the project and this cost us millions of naira,” he said.
The university teachers have been on strike since February this year.
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