By Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo

CALABAR zone of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has chided the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation  for forcing Federal Universities in the country into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, (IPPIS).

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The zone which spoke in Uyo on Sunday through its Coordinator,  Dr. Aniekan Brown of the department of Sociology & Anthropology University of Uyo, (UNIUYO), wondered why the federal government was foisting the payment system on Universities despite the shortcomings.

Brown said, “The attempt by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to foist IPPIS on federal universities is a flagrant negation and violation of the Laws of the land. For a number of reasons, IPPIS as a payment system is not congenial with the modus operandi of the University system given the perculiarities of universities.

“The mode of employment, retirement age(s), sabbatical leave, adjunct, part-time, contract engagements. are concepts that are unique to the university system, and obviously incompatible to IPPIS.

“The OAGF has been economical with the whole truth about addressing these perculiarities. In spite of obvious short-comings of this system of payment, the OAGF is bent on plunging the University system into avoidable confusion. We, therefore, demand that the office retrace its steps and heed to superior reasoning”

Brown questioned why key federal government institutions have not been forced into the scheme, and urged the OAGF to desist from employing corruption propaganda against ASUU in order to foist the payment system on varsities.

He explained that the history and struggles of ASUU were dotted with anti-corruption stance, stressing, “IPPIS is itself an illegality in the context of our University system.

“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no worse case of corruption than breaking or circumventing the Law. As torch-bearers of Nigeria’s intellectual conscience, ASUU is committed to compelling the Federal government to be Law-abiding.

“Dear compatriots, may we inform you that the likes of NNPC, FIRS, NJC, CBN, Nigeria security and Minting Press, National Assembly Service Commission, among others have not been forced into the IPPIS. This speaks volumes of the said, fight against corruption.

“The question is: Why are Universities whose condition of service and peculiarities are incongruous with the said IPPIS forced into the scheme?

“The OAGF should desist from the unprofitable attempts to present ASUU in bad light, and rather redirect its energies at addressing the concerns raised by ASUU on the issue of IPPIS. By so doing, it will avert the looming round of industrial crisis it will be plunging the University system into”, he warne

Chairpersons of the union from Abia state University, University of Uyo, University of Calabar, Akwa Ibom state University, Ebonyi state University, among others were in attendance.

Vanguard