The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) has warned that creating a separate salary payment platform for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will create chaos in the federal civil service.
Okolieaboh Sylva, the acting accountant general of the federation, disclosed this during a meeting with ASUU, the minister of labour, Chris Ngige, and the leadership of the house of representatives on Thursday, September 29, in Abuja.
However, Sylva accepted to accommodate peculiarities allowances in the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information Payment System (IPPIS).
Sylva said that if there were peculiarities allowances in ASUU’s payment system, what needed to be done was to incorporate them into the platform and that the OAGF was willing to do that.
“Let us sit down and know what these issues are and address them inside IPPIS. We can correct whatever mistake we make now,” said the acting AGF.
Sylva also expressed reservations about ASUU’s insistence on incorporating the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform for its members.
He stated that, “If we accept what ASUU is saying, it will create room for everyone to be asking for their own payment platform.
“The implementation of UTAS payment platform will cause chaos in the civil service.
“The military is on IPPIS and health workers. ASUU should sit down with us and see the progress we have made in the civil service.”
Sylva further said that the incorporation of ASUU’s demand on the IPPIS platform could be done without President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval, explaining that there was nothing complicated about the issue once ASUU agreed to the offer.
The acting accountant general said that, “In the spirit of reconciliation, if ASUU knows what can be done, we are willing to adopt it to resolve this issue.
“It doesn’t make sense not to accept. Let ASUU come to us. We are willing to accept.
“If we are going to adopt UTAS, that shows we are going to build the salaries of other civil servants to UTAS.”
Ngige, while speaking at the meeting, said that the Buhari-led administration would not offer ASUU what it does not have, noting that the union leadership met with the president on January 9, 2022, to convince the government to adopt its UTAS platform for lecturers’ salaries.
The minister claimed that the three payment platforms brought by ASUU failed the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) integrity test, adding that he could not recommend adopting any of them, no matter the pressure, according to Peoples Gazette.
Meanwhile, ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke, said that it was unfortunate that the federal government failed to understand how the university system operates.
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