ASUU accuses Ngige, accountant-general in FG/labour rift

Says 95 dons owed 13 months in Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has alleged that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris are compounding the crisis between the Federal Government and labour unions.

The union, during its press briefing at the Bauchi Zonal Office, yesterday, accused Ngige, who is saddled with the responsibility of solving labour-related issues, deliberately creating one or escalating one and watch it degenerate.

Coordinator for the zone, which comprises Bauchi, Gombe and Plateau states, Prof. Lawan Abubakar, said this at the press conference in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU).

He said the Federal Government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel information System (IPPIS) kept omitting the salaries of his members.

Lawan said: “We have all reasons to blame him (Ngige) for what is happening right now because he has been the anchor and the monitor between the government and the union. Every timeline given he had to agree and promise that the government would deliver on those timelines. But here we are.

Also, it said that 95 of its members across ATBU, Bauchi; Federal University of Kashere (FUK) in Gombe and University of Jos (UNIJOS) in Plateau are yet to be paid between two to 13 months.

“The inconsistencies observed in the application of the IPPIS in the payment of salaries and remittances of third-party deductions have continued in all the federal universities. Since the introduction of IPPIS in February 2020, our members have continued to be omitted from the payment of monthly salary,” the union added.

Lawan said the national leaders of ASUU have been engaging the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to solve the problem of salary deduction and omissions.

He lamented the fragility of IPPIS, which he claimed had done more damage than good to lecturers, who were forced into the system.

Therefore, he urged the government to adopt the varsity-designed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to end the problem.