The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) on Monday change her decision to enroll on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System ( IPPIS) following Challenges faced with February 2020 salary paid to her members.
All the universities based Unions has earlier rejected the platform on the claimed that her perculiarities would not be capture, but later the three non teaching staff Unions embraced the programme , leaving only ASUU opposing it with an alternative.
After payment of February salary, the non teaching staff said her perculiarities which the Unions raised concern was not included
Speaking on the development, National Public Relations officer of SSANU, Comrade Salaam Abdussobur Olayiwola the Union keyed into the IPPIS with an understanding that all the peculiarities in the University system, particularly pertaining to the members would be adequately addressed, especially the issues of allowances, appointments, increments, third party deductions etc.
Comrade Olayiwola however asked that such anomalies be address without further delay and ensures rectification of these anomalies because the situation as at today cannot guarantee industrial peace in the system.
He said these concerns were raised and the fears were allayed through various correspondences, meetings and practical sessions where the application was displayed and all issues brought forward were addressed.
Comrade Olayiwola in a statement said ” It was only after exhausting all the queries and getting satisfactory answers that our union, SSANU and its JAC counterpart NASU, decided to key into the platform in the overall interest of the system and our members.
“It is therefore shocking to us that our first real taste of the IPPIS application is totally different from what was presented. All the concerns raised by our unions were not implemented and disregarded”.
Describing Government action as breach of trust , the union mouth piece said SSANU members across the universities are groaning from various anomalies witnessed in their salaries thereby forcing them into great hardships which they never bargained for when they keyed into the IPPIS.
“As a leadership, this is totally unacceptable! The recent development has once again shown, despite our attempts to test otherwise, that Government can never be trusted and as such, based on what we have been subjected to with the February salary, we do not blame our lecturer counterparts, ASUU, for resisting the IPPIS from the beginning”.
On the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) proposed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the union while acknowledging the right of ASUU to reached understanding with Government, but must not be onbehalf of other u university based unions.
(We note that an understanding has been reached with ASUU to integrate the ASUU proposed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the IPPIS. While we place on record, the right of ASUU to reach an understanding with Government on this hybrid payment platform, we note that this can only be implemented for ASUU members as at today and if it is to be implemented across board, it must be with the consent of the other University based unions.
“Having keyed into the IPPIS project and gotten an unsavory first taste, we shall not accept any other payment platform which does not carry us along. If UTAS is a general University payment platform, we must be guaranteed that its features accommodate the peculiar needs and challenges of the non teaching staff in the system. If this is not guaranteed, the hybrid application shall be rejected in totality by our members”
On the way forward, SSANU demand that the office of the Accountant General of the Federation reverts us to the GIFMIS platform which was working seamlessly before IPPIS was introduced as it is getting clearer that union trust in government and its agencies on the IPPIS issue was clearly misplaced.
