Salaries of lecturers and all workers of tertiary institutions who refuse to enrol or are not yet on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) have been stopped as ordered by the Federal Government.
According to a letter reportedly seen by TheCable, the finance minister has been requested by the accountant-general of the federation not to release funds meant for January salaries to tertiary institutions.
The Accountant-General of the Federation reportedly stated in the letter that payments would be made through the IPPIS platform.
“l am directed to inform you that the preparation of January 2020 salary payroll and Warrants of the Federal Tertiary institutions are ongoing and will be ready for submission on or before 29th of January, 2020,” the letter read.
“This is to give effect to the directive of the Federal Government that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies drawing Personnel Cost from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) should be enrolled on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
“In order to actualize this directive, you are please requested not to release the Funds for payment of salaries to the Tertiary Institutions as their salaries will henceforth be paid on the IPPIS Platform with effect from January 2020.”
Barely three weeks after members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were hosted by the President at the presidential villa in Abuja over the IPPIS controversy, the directive on non-payment of salaries comes into play.
Recall that the centralised payroll system was rejected by Academic union after Federal government issued directive for workers to enrol and stated that it would affect the autonomy of universities.
While condemning the new payroll system, ASUU had earlier proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) “to address the peculiar cases of lecturers in the payment of salaries and other emoluments”.
Reacting on the development, the Federal Government insisted on IPPIS and this was reiterated to ASUU during the meeting with Buhari, Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning.
In the meeting, the finance minister disclosed that 96,090 workers had enrolled on the platform and urged staff who were yet to comply with the directive to do so.
An aggrieved lecturer who pleaded anonymity revealed that if the issue is not carefully managed, it may lead to strike action.
“The worst aspects of all this is: “Incremental arrears of workers minimum wages have not been paid. Balance of 80% earned allowances to non-teaching staff have not been paid yet they are proposing to withhold January salary due to 40, 000 ASUU staff that refused to join.”, a rather sad but angry lecturer said.