FG, ASUU face-off worsens over new payroll system

University lecturers may not resume academic activities soon as they have vowed not to give in to the Federal Government’s pressure to pay their salaries through the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities said its members would not key into the IPPIS platform as demanded by the Federal Government.

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday that only federal workers registered on the IPPIS platform would continue to get salaries.

Buhari said this during the presentation of the 2021 Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja.

The President said any worker not captured on the IPPIS payroll would be treated as a ghost worker.

But reacting to the President Buhari’s statement on the issue, the President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, said, “As far as ASUU is concerned, we have met with Mr President; we have reached an understanding that we should develop the alternative to IPPIS that will respect the autonomy of universities. That is what we have done and which we presented to the Federal Ministry of Education about two months ago.

“What is left for the government to do is to continue with the integrity test that they promised to conduct before they accept the alternative which is the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

“We don’t believe that ASUU falls into the category of non-existent workers. We don’t believe that ASUU works at the MDAs that Mr President talked about.

“The IPPIS is meant for the civil servants and that we know they are faithfully applying. So if that is going on in the MDAs, we believe the universities should be insulated from civil service rules because universities have their own establishment Acts which are vested with the management of personnel and payroll system in the hands of the university governing councils. That is what we have been challenging all along.”