By ISMAIL ABDULAZIZ

The Federal Government has removed tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) with immediate effect.

Similarly, the institutions are now to recruit their personnel without recourse to the Office of the Head of Service of the federation in order to reduce bureaucracy involved in such exercises.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who disclosed this at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday in Abuja, said this was part of government efforts to reduce the challenges facing tertiary institutions.

‘’Today at council, a most important decision was taken concerning the education sector of the economy. The vexatious issue bordering the stakeholders in the sector, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), was settled.

‘’The payment of universities staff through IPPIS has been settled and they are now to use their platform to pay their staff.

‘’They are now to also recruit their staff through normal criteria. They will, however, continue to be supervised by the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission as is the practice,’’ he said.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, also disclosed that the FEC approved the review of waivers by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in order to address the issue of loss of revenue.

‘’The Federal Government has approved the review of waiver by the Nigeria Customs Service which has been a thing of concern and loss of scarce revenue. The service has observed that the waiver has affected it targets.’’

He said that necessary recommendations would be made to address the issue of Customs waivers in the country, adding that appropriate measures are expected from such deliberations going forward.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said that the FEC approved two contracts for the sector, worth over N4.32 billion.

The first contract, he said, was for the purchase of navigation communication and remote access devices for the Port Harcourt International Airport, worth N2.22 billion.

‘’The second contract was for a technical support to maintain the new terminals in four international airports of Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt, worth N4.1 billion. These contracts are made for the comfort of travellers in the country,’’ he said. (NAN)

Update news