ASUU stike: Reps summon Ngige, DG budget office, AGF, SGF others
In a bid to bring to an end the lingering strike action embarked upon by the Academic staff union of universities (ASUU), the House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Labour and productivity Chris Ngige.
Also to appear before the lawmakers on Thursday next week are the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, the Head of Civil service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh, the Director General, salaries, income and wages commission, Mr Ekpo Nta, and the Director General Budget Office.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila disclosed this yesterday (Thursday) at the resumed fact-finding meeting on strike embarked upon by ASUU.
The meeting was a follow-up to an earlier one the Speaker held with ASUU officials on Tuesday, where issues related to the strike were discussed.
At the parley, NITDA told the House leadership that the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) failed its integrity tests regarding the university payroll, which the agency conducted between March and JUNE this year.
A NITDA official at the meeting told the House leadership that the government directed the agency to test UTAS in October 2020 and that the platform failed the two integrity tests conducted on it.
He said following the first test, ASUU was asked to go back and review, which it did. Yet, the platform did not meet NITDA’s requirements the second time.
For the third time, NITDA was then asked to conduct tests on UTAS, IPPIS and U3PS, which the official said all three platforms failed its requirements regarding the payroll system of universities.
Not satisfied with the explanation, Speaker Gbajabiamila asked if NITDA advised the government to take action on the lapses found on IPPIS, which has been in operation by the government since 2011. But the NITDA official said they were not in a position to do that.
Gbajabiamila also asked if NITDA queried IPPIS platform, to which the official responded in the negative.
Deputy Speaker Wase also expressed reservations at NITDA’s action, saying it ought to have advised the government on the appropriate action to take in view of its discovery on IPPIS.
However, the Head of Service, in her explanation, said the ministry of communications and digital economy wrote her office following NITDA’s observations about IPPIS on the need to take a holistic look at the platform and that a committee was empanelled to carry out the assignment.
She also noted that IPPIS is not just a payment platform but that it also has a human resource component, which all government agencies have been directed to activate, noting that all those directly under her purview have since complied.
Also, the chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Mr Nta, told the House leadership that in view of the general agitation in the tertiary education sector, the agency advised the government to look at the possibility of increasing the salaries of the staff in the entire sector, comprising universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
He said, however, that at the end of the day, the government decided to increase the salaries of lecturers in the universities by a certain percentage, while professors were considered for a higher percentage.
He said he was not aware of any agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU for salary increments.
Okolieaboh, said under no circumstance should employees dictate to their employers how they should be paid, faulting ASUU’s insistence on UTAS.
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