Since the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, as the payment mode for workers under the government employ, there have been pockets of complaints among the workers. Although some of the workers endured the inconvenience, those in the tertiary institutions could not hold their frustrations. Before the introduction of IPPIS, workers in tertiary institutions were paid through Government Integrated Financial Management System, GIFMIS.
The IPPIS was introduced by the federal government in October 2006 as part of its reform initiatives to effectively store personnel records and promote transparency and accountability.
The most vocal voices against IPPIS were the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP.
The unions through their various leaderships complain of irregularities in payment of salaries; inaccurate capturing; lack of implementation of allowances; remittance of loans to cooperative organisations; non-implementation of responsibility and hazard allowances; third party deductions, such as tax, pension, union, bank loans; non-use of pay slip; lack of motivation, poor productivity and other challenges.
The unions on various occasions have threatened to down tools if the government fails to address the highlighted irregularities associated with the use of the platform for payment. As an alternative, ASUU came up with its own payment platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS). The union told the government to replace IPPIS with UTAS.
The IPPIS is a department under the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and responsible for payment of salaries and wages directly to federal government employees’ bank accounts after appropriate deductions and remittances. With the introduction of the IPPIS, no university lecturer under the government employ can collect salary from different universities.
On their side, two of the universities non teaching staff unions, the Senior State Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, through the Joint Action Committee, JAC, introduced another payment platform, University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, U3PS.
The platform which was described as a multitenant system that accommodates the peculiarities in the Nigerian University System, was presented to the former Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu on May 10, 2022.
At the presentation, Mr Yusuf Adeyemi, the System Programmer, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, explained the features of the payment system. He said “The system handles all employees’ financial records in a hassle-free, automated fashion. This includes employees’ salaries, bonuses, deductions, net pay, generation of pay-advice and other financial reports using accounting best practices.
U3PS seek to essentially automate those micro administrative tasks performed by accountant general office and bursars of federal institutions, thereby giving the office the mental bandwidth to focus on the macro.
Some of the security features include but not limited to One-Time Password (OTP) via google authenticator, BVN verification among others, “he explained.
After the presentation, Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the payment system would be subjected to an integrity test by the National Information Technology and Development Agency, NITDA.
The minister said the advantages derived from both payment platforms could be used in enhancing the efficiency of IPPIS so that Nigeria can have a single payment platform.
Recently, precisely on December 13, 2023, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja, in its last meeting for the year, exempted workers in tertiary institutions from the IPPIS, thereby allowing the schools to deal with the salary issues of their staff internally.
The government also relieved managements of tertiary institutions of the burden of obtaining approval and waiver from the Office of the Head of Service for recruitment.
Briefing journalists at the end of the FEC meeting, the Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman Tahir, said FEC took the decision to remove the institutions from the system because of its concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
According to him, apart from the opposition to the payment system by the ASUU, the IPPS issue had proved time consuming for university vice chancellors, “dragging the efficiency of the management of the institutions.”
The minister explained that as the tertiary institutions are governed by laws, they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.
He said, “It was a very happy day for the education sector because one of the problems which the vice chancellors, rectors and provosts of colleges of education, those managing the tertiary sector in Nigeria, have been complaining about has been the subscription to the IPPIS
“You know what IPPIS does, which has made recruitment and many other activities of the university remitting to personnel very difficult. Now today’s Council decided, the President has directed that vice chancellor should no longer…they have been taken out of that service. So this is a very, very important development for the vice chancellors that will allow for efficient management of the universities and tertiary education generally speaking.
“Then secondly, which is connected to that, before now when the tertiary institutions want to make an appointment, they have to write to the Office of the Head of Service for waiver or approval or that sort of thing.
“Today, the Council, through the directive of the President, has exempted them. They don’t have to go to the Office of the Head of Service because it is actually not in their line of supervision.
Giving more clarity to the approval on IPPIS, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed 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 IPPIS”, he said.
However, despite the fact that university based unions have criticized the use of IPPIS for the payment of their salaries and had come up with alternative platforms, there were mixed reactions over the FEC decision.
It should be noted that irrespective of the complaints associated with IPPIS platform, most of the unions if not all at their national level have made much money through deductions and check-off dues. IPPIS helps to curtail under remittance to the national body by various branches.
Reacting to the removal of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform, the President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim in his remarks at the Union’s 46th NEC meeting at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State said though the union called for the stoppage of paying her members through IPPIS, the government should be clear on the issue and mention the new platform tertiary institutions would be paid with.
Comrade Ibrahim urged the government to replace IPPIS with the U3PS, which he said had passed all the necessary integrity test.
faced, it enriched the unions at the centre as it reduced under declaration by chapters.