Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has expressed displeasure over the alleged irregularities witnessed in the payment of February 2020 salaries for its members using the Integrated Payroll and Personel Information System (IPPIS), a government payment platform.
It said though it believes that the platform would greatly improve personnel accountability in the system thereby reducing the spate of corruption in the universities, it faulted the implementation.
In a statement issued yesterday by the National Public Relations Officer of SSANU, Mr. Salaam Abdussobur Olayiwola, the union urged the federal government to look into the issue and immediately address the anomaly so as not to cause disruption in industrial peace in the institutions.
“Kindly recall that we keyed into the IPPIS with an understanding that all the peculiarities in the University system, particularly pertaining to our members would be adequately addressed, especially the issues of allowances, appointments, increments, third party deductions etc.
“Various concerns were raised and our fears were allayed through various correspondences, meetings and practical sessions where the application was displayed and all issues brought forward were addressed. It is therefore shocking to us that our first real taste of the IPPIS application is totally different from what was presented”.
SSANU said it regretted that the concerns raised by the union were not implemented.
“Apart from the breach of trust which has now manifested, our members across the universities are groaning from various anomalies witnessed in their salaries thereby forcing them into great hardships which they never bargained for when they keyed into the IPPIS.
“As a leadership, this is totally unacceptable! The recent development has once again shown, despite our attempts to test otherwise, that Government can never be trusted and as such, based on what we have been subjected to with the February salary, we do not blame our lecturer counterparts, ASUU, for resisting the IPPIS from the beginning!
“It is on the strength of the above that we demand that the office of the Accountant General of the Federation reverts us to the GIFMIS platform which was working seamlessly before IPPIS was introduced as it is getting clearer that our trust in government and its agencies on the IPPIS issue was clearly misplaced”.
