By Fidel Ozugha
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Bola Tinubu has approved the exit of workers in all public universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
This was disclosed by Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, while briefing State House Correspondents about the outcome of the FEC meeting.
According to the Minister, universities and other tertiary institutions in the country have been authorised to discontinue their use of IPPIS.
“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 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.”
Prof. Mamman Tahir explained that the approval of the removal of universities and other tertiary institutions in the country from IPPIS can now allow schools to deal with the salary issues of their staff internally. According to him, FEC took the decision because of its concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
ASUU had opposed the system because it has proved time consuming for university vice chancellors to administer universities thereby “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, therefore removing tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform and stopping them from seeking Head of Civil Service’s authority for recruitment would allow the institutions to deal with salary issues of their staff, as well as recruitment internally.
“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.
The education minister also said council approved the construction of Senate Building at University of Nigeria and funds to National Examination Council (NECO).
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had in October said the introduction of IPPIS, led to about 70,000 ghost workers being eliminated from the payroll.
In the year 2020, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) went on a eight-month strike due to disputes with the Federal Government regarding the payment platform opted for the University Transparency Account System (UTAS).
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.
