The Nigerian government has asked federal university bursars to list the problems they’ve encountered in paying salaries through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform so they can be resolved immediately.
The government spoke after receiving a strike notice from the Universities’ non-teaching workers unions that said the issues had weakened their initial support for the payment network.
Labor and Employment Minister, Chris Ngige, who said this in Abuja on Sunday, explained that his office is planning to apply for a special pass from the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force to hold a physical meeting with the unions to discuss and resolve the disputed issues.
IPPIS is the accountability software of the government which has been made compulsory for all public institutions, mainly for the payroll of personnel.
University workers have opposed the implementation of the IPPIS, arguing that the institutions’ unique operations are not taken into account. This has contributed to confrontations between the unions and the government in the last few months.
The federal government said last month that it was deliberately misled through the IPPIS by the management of some Nigerian universities in paying salaries to some of the deceased members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) had initially supported the IPPIS initiative, but later said its trust in the system was eroded by irregularities noticed in the payment of their February salaries.
Mr Ngige said that one of the grievances highlighted by the non-teaching staff at universities is that IPPIS over-taxes them and “that IPPIS skipped some of their people who have taken leave of absence and the rest of them all.
“These are matters that can be easily adjusted. The IPPIS office informed me that immediately the lockdowns are down, these bursars are to come up, but before then that they should by e-system try to give them additional information on some of those shortcomings and that they will try as much as possible to correct them,” he said.
Mr Ngige said the Zoom meeting will not be able to correct some of the discovered problems.
“We decided that we have to do a physical meeting and we will do that as soon as possible. My office is working with the IPPIS office to arrange that meeting,” the minister said.
“We are on top of the situation, we have received their letter. Their letter borders on shortcomings of the IPPIS system and I have spoken with the Finance Minister and the Accountant-General of the Federation and they said that they are in touch with the university bursars to correct certain peculiarities and send back to them to treat,” he said.
Speaking on the planned meeting with the government in a phone interview, the Chairman of Joint Action Committee(JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU), Samson Ugwoke, said the non-teaching staff members in the universities have been passing through hardship since they enrolled into the IPPIS platform.
He said the government had no need to call for a meeting before it paid its full salaries to members and released their slips for payment.
“In the past four months, members have not received full salaries, while deductions made for the servicing of bank loans which members took have not been remitted to the banks and cooperative societies,” he said.
“Up till now, the other deductions that are meant for our members and their welfare are being withheld by the IPPIS and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. They deducted tax and paid to the federal government, they deducted welfare money, they deducted cooperative society funds, they deducted loans and withheld them since that time. The implication is that salaries have not been paid in full since the inception of the IPPIS,” he said.
According to Mr Ugwoke, “the Labour Act says no organisation or employer should deduct check-off dues and withhold for over two weeks, it is contrary to the Labour Act.
“The actual thing is that when it is deducted, it’s then remitted to the office of that union. But for four months now, the Accountant-General Office via the Office of IPPIS has deducted money and withheld the money without remitting to the unions, the Cooperative Society, to the Welfare scheme or to the banks that people borrowed money from,” he said
Mr Ugwoke said a new brewing issue is that IPPIS says the salaries of doctors and health staff in universities who have exceeded 60 years of age will be stopped.
“It appears that the man in IPPIS seems to be power-drunk or seems not to be well informed or guided because the retirement age matter is an Act of the National Assembly and it is not joined with salary. The National Assembly passed this law that all non-teaching staff of the universities should retire at 65,” he said.
“We have written to the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, we are yet to get a reply even though they are talking about calling us for a meeting but we insist you don’t need to call a meeting to pay us full salary or release payslips. We have made it clear to the Honourable Minister that they should do the needful,” he said.
He said the labour unions made it clear that if IPPIS irregularities are not corrected, “we are going to embark on a total strike. We have written to notify them that we will commence a 14-day warning strike in the first instance and thereafter it will be total and indefinite.”
“JAC has also issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to correct all the problems associated with the payment of salary through the IPPIS platform and release their Earned Allowances before the easing of the lockdown, if not members will not resume duty when schools resume,” he concluded.
