The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Ajuri Ngelale said the introduction of the Integrated Personnel Payment Information System (IPPIS) for the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) is aimed at curbing the excesses and corruption in the payment system of lecturers.

“At the time we are trying to manage the revenues…we can’t afford to sit and watch individuals take multiple salaries for themselves at the expense of the institutions and this country,” Ngelale said during an interview with Silverbird TV.

IPPIS is responsible for processing and payment of salary to over three hundred thousand (300,000) Federal Government Employees across the 459 MDAs. Its aim is to enrol into the platform, all Federal Government MDAs that draws personnel cost fund from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The federal government and ASUU are at loggerhead over the IPPIS. The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation last week said the staff of any university that failed to enroll in IPPIS would not be paid their October salaries.

But the lecturers said should that threat be carried out, they would respond by staying away from work.

ASUU chairman University of Lagos Dele Asiru, however, said lecturers are entitled to such system of payment during their sabbatical leave.

He said lecturers earning from different universities during their sabbatical leave which is at an interval of 6 years is done across the world.

“Government should stop this hype about fighting corruption, they are paying only leave service” Asiru said.

He said the government overruling such practices are against the autonomy and agreement it had with the institution.

Asiru said the template of the IPPIS presented by the accountant general is different from the one the law states.

He said if the Nigerian government is fighting against corruption, it is not by”sloganeering” and accusing ASUU of corruption.

“What ASUU is saying is that what the government wants to achieve can be achieved if they cooperate with our union,” Asiru said.

But Ngelale said IPPIS will enable federal government to stop lecturers from earning full-time salaries from multiple universities under the disguise of sabbatical leave.

He said the regulation is like the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) that was introduced in 2015 which linked BVN to all accounts of federal services workers.

Ngelale said the implementation of PICA has revealed about 54, 000 ghost workers in the service’s payroll as the country saved about N200 billion through the process.

The presidential aide said the ASUU cannot refuse to be enrolled on IPPIS when the country’s military and other agencies are on the same system.

He also stated that although the IPPIS will regulate the excesses of lecturers, instead of the federal government paying a lecturer four times salary during their sabbatical leave, benefits, and allowance, will be provided to them. (The Guardian)

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