Somtochukwu

The university non- academic workers have warned that the Federal Government cannot use the payment platform designed by the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) to pay them, even as they have rejected the new platform introduced by the Federal Government, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Rather, the workers asked the government to revert to the former platform being used to pay them, the Government Integrated Finance Management Information System (GIFMIS) or adopt their own platform, designed newly by their unions- the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).

Under the Joint Action of NASU and SSANU, the non-teaching staff have also designed their own platform to be launched very soon, to handle the payment of their salaries and other related entitlements.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has earlier designed its own platform, called, Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for the payment of salaries in the place of IPPIS; and insisted that the Federal Government should adopt this platform rather than the troubled IPPIS.

While ASUU has from the onset totally rejected the IPPIS platform as designed by the government because of the perceived problems and crisis that would associate with the system, NASU and SSANU went ahead to key into it after series on consultations and meetings with the government, believing that the perceived lapses would be addressed.

However, the General Secretary of NASU, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, told Nigerian Tribune that the IPPIS was repletes with series of problems when in February the IPPIS started the payment of salaries of workers in the universities and later in the universities centers.

Comrade Adeyemi said: “To our surprise, most of the things we agreed upon, the government did not comply. Government went back on its words. when this thing started we found out that some of our members were not paid their salaries at all, some were paid what is completely below what they were expected to pay.”

He explained that on the issue of 2009 NASU/SSANU and Federal Government agreements, which includes the payment of a number of allowances including earned allowance, all the agreements were jettisoned.

He pointed out that deductions, such as the National Housing Fund, which the workers were not paying before, IPPIS decided to deduct it without their knowledge and without following the due process.

The NASU general secretary stated that the position of the unions was that the government should return payment of the salary of their members to what it used to be before the IPPIS platform commenced; adding, “we were on Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and “GIFMIS” is another platform for payment.

He also disclosed that the JAC of NASU and NAAT has designed their own platform, which would soon be made known.

Comrade Adeyemi said, “we have designed our own platform, we are ready to also present it. Don’t forget that ASUU also said they have a platform they have designed. So, if government is ready, it’s now the right of the unions to prepare their platforms. We have our own, they can’t use ASUU platform to pay us.”

He pointed out that the platform was ready and would be presented to the public very soon, adding that they have agreed to do a formal launching of the platform

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