Impasse As ASUU Refuses To Accept IPPIS As A Payment Platform

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have refused to accept the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information system (IPPIS) as a platform for payment of lecturers.

Gatekeepers News reports that all efforts fell on deaf ears and no agreement was reached during the peace move initiated by the House of Representatives to resolve the impasse between the striking lecturers and the Federal Government.

The meeting, On Thursday, lasted for about three hours in an atmosphere filled with tension and emotion that led to raised voices and arguments that the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, tried to manage rising tempers.

At a point, the leader of the House, Alhassan Doguwa, inferred ASUU was being unreasonable as he said there was no grounds ASUU should reject the options offered by the Federal Government to address the issue.

Doguwa angrily said, “We must have to make progress and progress must have to start from somewhere. We agree you may still have other issues to raise but as long as we are to be guided by the submission of the head of service and the AGF, who said he has the jurisdiction and mandate to come up and address most of the concerns you have, I want to believe the end should justify the means. As leaders of the House, I want to urge you to allow us to make progress and the only way to make progress is for you to compromise and let us start from somewhere.”

The Account General of the Federation, Sylvia Okolieaboh, had earlier begged the ASUU to accept the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) , saying they were ready to accommodate the peculiarities of the union on the platform payment platform.

He said that adopting University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) which ASUU demands, might prompt unwholesome demands from various other agencies to be paid with platforms of their own choice.

Okolieaboh said: “If there are peculiarities in the university salaries system, what we need to do is to sit down with ASUU and identify them and address them in IPPIS. We are willing to accept, if the answer is yes, then the whole of the issues will be resolved.”