The Federal Government has announced the exemption of universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), a payment system the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) vehemently opposed.
The government made this decision during the federal cabinet meeting chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, a development that would be much to the relief of ASUU.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Maman, clarified that these institutions’ heads now have the liberty to carry out recruitment exercises without obligatory consultation with the Head of Service of the Federation.
Explaining the decision, the Minister emphasized that the President directed the exclusion of Vice-Chancellors from the platform to streamline the recruitment process, aiming for more efficient management of educational institutions.
“Simply, the president and the council is just concerned about efficiency of management of the universities and so it has nothing to do with integrity or options of platforms.
“The president cannot understand why Vice Chancellors should be leaving their duty post and run to Abuja to get staff enlisted on IPPIS when they get recruited.
According to Mamman, the concern lies in ensuring the effective administration of universities, emphasizing that the autonomy granted to these institutions under their respective laws had been encroached upon by IPPIS, disrupting their operational independence.
“The basic concern is that universities are governed by laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects and most respects and the IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in accordance with their act.”
It would recalled that in 2020, ASUU embarked on a lengthy 9-months industrial action in rejection of IPPIS, which they would erode the autonomy of universities in the country.
The academic body, however, proposed the University Transparency Accounting System (UTAS) as an alternative to IPPIS.
Speaking on this recent development, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, said that the decision marks a significant relief for universities and tertiary institutions, as they will now independently handle personnel payment processes instead of relying on the IPPIS system.
Idris said, “Today, the universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the integrated personnel payroll and information system. You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.
“Today, council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward, the universities like the Honorable Minister of Education has said and other tertiary institutions, the polytechnics and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.
“What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPI.”
