The Senate has begun a probe into what it described as the Alarming Cases of Delays in Payment and Allegations of Corruption associated with the Capturing and Payment of newly recruited University Staff under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Against this backdrop, the Senate has asked its Committees when constituted to immediately carry out a holistic investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption of IPPIS officials at various Universities across the Federation, delayed capturing and payment of staff of Federal Government –owned Universities who were recruited as far back as 2020 and to make a report on the status of the disagreement between the Federal Government and ASUU on the use of either IPPIS or UTAS as the preferred payment platform for Nigerian university staff; and

According to the Upper Chamber, it would mandate the Ad-hoc Committee to interact with the Head of Service, the National President of ASUU, the Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and other relevant stakeholders in carrying out its mandate, and to report back within two weeks for further legislative action.

Resolutions of the Senate yesterday were sequel to a motion titled, “Urgent Need to Investigate the Alarming Cases of Delays in Payment and Allegations of Corruption associated with the Capturing and Payment of newly recruited University Staff under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).”

The motion was sponsored by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, YPP, Anambra South.

In his presentation, Senator Ubah said that the Senate “Notes that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was introduced by the Federal Government sometime in 2007 as a reform measure aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in the storage of federal government employee records and administration of their monthly payroll in such a manner as to guarantee confidence in staff emolument costs and budgeting;

“Also notes that the primary motive for the introduction of IPPIS was to take advantage of existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on personnel and payroll management in other parts of the world to ensure that ghost workers are eliminated while bona fide Federal Government employees are paid accurately and timely;

“Observes that since its introduction in 2007, over two million federal government employees across 696 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including some staff of Federal Government-owned universities and other tertiary institutions, have been reportedly captured on the IPPIS platform;

“Recalls that the use of IPPIS for storage of personnel records and management of staff payroll in Federal Government-owned universities was a thorny issue between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) during the recently suspended strike embarked upon by ASUU;

“Further notes that while the Federal Government insisted that IPPIS remains the best personnel records and payroll management system to be used for storage of records and management of payroll of university staff, ASUU took a different position, recommending the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as an alternative that is most suitable for universities particularly;

(CDA NEWS)
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