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ASUU insists on strike, describes IPPIS as cesspool of corruption

By Agosi Todo, Calabar
03 November 2020   |   3:21 am
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed to continue the strike embarked upon by its members, describing the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) as a cesspool of corruption.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed to continue the strike embarked upon by its members, describing the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) as a cesspool of corruption.

It stated this yesterday in Calabar, Cross River State, at a media briefing where its leaders insisted on continuing the nationwide industrial action.
Coordinator of the Calabar Zone of ASUU, Dr. Aniekan Brown, said government’s claim that 71,000 members of ASUU had already accepted to register with the IPPIS was incorrect, noting that the claims amounted to distraction for ASUU.

“The distraction known as IPPIS is a cesspool of corruption and Federal Government’s illicit commitment, hard-work, determination and treachery to forcibly migrate employees of Federal universities to the IPPIS platform.

“Government’s claim is not true. We challenge the authorities to the fact that we are not up to 71,000 members. The Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning had earlier said 71,000 members of ASUU had accepted to register on the IPPIS platform.

“We are not the only employees of the university system, as lecturers in state universities are also included. We are not up to 71,000 academic staff in federal and state universities. I stand to be corrected. So, government’s statistics is faulty and a mere propaganda,” he stated.

He said the union had vowed not to resume work until government addressed their demands and that ASUU members have not been paid for between four and nine months, adding: “We are still in the trenches.”

Brown noted that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) had told a lot of lies about addressing the peculiarities, saying: “Unfortunately, ASUU held meetings with the OAGF and for all that the meetings were worth, they were only meant to convince ASUU that the IPPIS is capable of addressing the concerns of the union, but this did not happen.”

He explained that ASUU had made presentations to the government and that it was ready for the final presentation to NITDA, but the OAGF insisted that its members migrate first and that during the intervening period, after which if the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) was approved, they would be re-migrated to UTAS.

“We argued that it is a case of economic waste, because ASUU has been rejecting the IPPIS since 2013 and government challenged us to produce an alternative. We took up the challenge and came up with UTAS.

“Revitalisation of public universities for which government is indebted to the tune of N20b short of N1.1 trillion, the National University Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO) Limited and 2016-2018 salary shortfalls, which have been fairly addressed, are some of the issues in contention,” he added.

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