Chris Ngige, the minister of labor and productivity, as well as the secretary to the government of the federation, the head of the federal civil service, the federal comptroller general, the director general of the salaries, income and wages commission, and the director general of the budget office have all been invited to appear before the lawmakers on Thursday of next week.
At the ASUU-led strike fact-finding meeting that was resumed on Thursday, the Speaker made this disclosure.
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The Speaker of the House of Representatives met with the Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), Mrs. Folashade Yemi-Esan, the chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta, as well as other government officials on Thursday in an effort to continue finding solutions to the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) protracted strike.
The meeting was a follow-up to one the Speaker had on Tuesday with ASUU officials where topics pertaining to the strike were covered.
The outcome of the meeting on Tuesday prompted the House leadership to invite a number of individuals, including the Head of Service, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, and the Accountant General of the Federation.
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The Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) failed the integrity tests that NITDA conducted on the university payroll between March and June of this year, the agency informed the House leadership at the meeting on Thursday.
At the meeting, an NITDA representative informed the House leadership that the platform failed both integrity tests that were performed on it after the government instructed the agency to test UTAS in October 2020.
After the initial test, he claimed, ASUU was invited to return and evaluate, which it did. The platform did not, however, satisfy NITDA’s demands the second time.
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Then, NITDA was requested to do tests on UTAS, IPPIS, and U3PS for the third time. According to the official, all three platforms failed to meet the standards for the university payment system.
Speaker Gbajabiamila expressed dissatisfaction with the response and inquired as to whether NITDA had recommended the government to take action regarding the flaws discovered on IPPIS, which the government has been using since 2011. However, the NITDA representative claimed that they were unable to do so.
Gbajabiamila also inquired as to whether NITDA had questioned the IPPIS platform, and the representative replied in the yes.
The Deputy Speaker Wase expressed disapproval of NITDA’s action as well, claiming that in light of its discovery on IPPIS, it should have informed the government on the best course of action.
The Head of Service clarified, however, that a committee was appointed to complete the job after the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy wrote to her office in response to NITDA’s remarks concerning IPPIS regarding the necessity to take a comprehensive look at the platform.
She also noted that IPPIS is not just a payment platform but that it also has a human resource component, which all government agencies have been directed to activate, noting that all those directly under her purview have since complied.
The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission’s chairman, Mr. Nta, also informed the House leadership that in light of the widespread unrest in the tertiary education sector, the organization had advised the government to consider raising salaries for employees across the board, including in universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
He said, however, that at the end of the day, the government decided to increase the salaries of lecturers in the universities by a certain percentage, while professors were considered for a higher percentage.
He stated that he was not aware of any wage augmentation arrangement between the Federal Government and ASUU.
Also speaking at the meeting, the acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh, said under no circumstance should employees dictate to their employers how they should be paid, faulting ASUU’s insistence on UTAS.
After hours of deliberations, the Speaker suggested that a further follow-up meeting with ASUU officials be held on Thursday next week, which the stakeholders subscribed to. The meeting was, therefore, adjourned to Thursday next week.
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